So, once a year, we here in the United States gather with family and friends to celebrate how thankful we are for a good harvest... OK, so nowadays, it's more just to celebrate everything we're thankful for... OK, so Thanksgiving is a good excuse to stuff yourself with good food, watch football (for those of you who choose to) and drink craft beer with family and friends. Well, we can't help you with football, and we don't focus that much on the food, but we can help you make sure you tie a buzz on with good craft beer so you can tolerate all the family time! We realize there's a few stages to the day, so we've made a few picks that we strenuously taste tested for your satisfaction. Remember, these are just recommendations and most craft beer has only a limited distribution range. Because of that, after each of our picks we've included alternatives that we endorse. Or, just find something by your local craft brewery in the same style. In the end, as long as you're drinking good beer on Thanksgiving, you'll probably have a good day! 

Football Time (AKA What You Drink During the Day Before the Meal)

This is a beer you're going to want to be able to drink a lot of. Whether you're watching football, the parade or just hanging out, you'll probably want something light and crisp that won't fill you up. More taste, less filling? Yes please, but we're not talking about any beer with commercials and an ad agency behind it. Our recommendation on this is Stoudt's Pilsner. Made in Adamstown, PA, this is a great pilsner made by people known for making great craft lagers.

Stoudt's Pilsner
Appearance: Light pale color with a whispy white head

Aroma: Nice light malt tones with a hint of hops.

Taste: Crisp clean, refreshing with perfect bitterness. The hops come through but are not overwhelming in any way, you can, and probably should, have more than one... and enjoy each as much as the one before it.

Other options: New England Brewing Company Atlantic Amber, Offshore Brewing Co. Amber Ale, Victory Prima Pils, Brooklyn Lager or Pilsner, etc...

Salad/Soup Drink

For this first course, you'll want something light and crisp that can go well with a vinaigrette dressing or something with a little bite to it. We think something with a decent hop bitterness will counter pretty well... just don't overdo it with a crazy Double IPA and kill your taste buds. A good pale ale or IPA should do it. Our recommendation: 

Sierra Nevada Harvest Fresh Hop Ale (From Craft Brewers Get Fresh With Your Hops)

Appearance: Redish amber, thick off white head

Aroma: Hoppiest of them all very fresh smelling, piney aroma

Taste: No doubt this is a Sierra Nevada beer. What up cascade?! While very good, it doesn't have that fresh hop feel that the Great Divide did. That aside, $5 for a a 24oz beer this good is a deal and it still has a more complex and rewarding flavor than a typical pale ale or ipa. In Sierra Nevada Fashion it is a bit more bitter than most on the backend, but it's exactly what you'd expect.  

Other Options: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Dale's Pale Ale, Wachusett IPA, New England Brewing Company Sea Hag IPA, Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale or Finest Kind IPA or if your local craft brewer makes one along these lines, check it out. You shouldn't be too hard pressed to find something good in this style. Seemingly everybody makes one!

Main Course Drink

For dinner, you'll want something with enough flavor to stand up to the slightly gamey turkey, tart cranberry sauce, buttery mashed potatoes and stuffing. But, you also don't want it to fill you up too much. Almost anything Belgian style will work. The spice of the yeast and bold flavors will stand up fine to the meal, even in lighter Belgian beers that won't fill you up. Our recommendation: 

Ommegang Hennepin Saison

Appearance: Golden straw, hazy, light white head

Aroma: Citrusy, sweet, hint of spice

Taste: Smooth, a light sweetness, spicy hop finish, and a the tell tale earthy spicy finish you'd expect from a saison. Bold enough to stand up to a hearty meal, without making you too full to eat it.

Note: This particular example of a Saison is a little sweeter than usual. There are many other saisons that are less sweet and more spicy. If you want something drier, try anything by Fantome from Belgium, Red Barn by Lost Abbey in California or Bam Biere by Jolly Pumpkin in Michigan. Or, if your local craft brewery makes a saison, give it a shot. Basically we're just recommending this style for the meal... a good saison, at least, that is. 

Other Options: Anything by Fantome, Red Barn by Lost Abbey, Bam Biere (or almost anything) by Jolly Pumpkin, Allagash White or Dubbel, or something local. Just remember, not to filling, full flavored and spicy.

Dessert Drink

For dessert, you'll want something sweet to match up with pie, chocolate or what have you. A chocolate stout on Thanksgiving can be the perfect finish to a meal. Which you choose is really up to you. It will go great with vanilla ice cream (on pie), anything chocolate or a myriad of other sweet desserts. (For a special treat, try making a beer float... Basically just a scoop of ice cream in a chocolaty stout). Our recommendation: 

Rogue Chocolate Stout
Appearance: Dark, frothy head that dissipates quickly

Aroma: Sweet, light chocolate, notes of sweet pipe tobacco.

Taste: Lighter than most, which will be nice after a big meal when many of us barely have room to fit in dessert as it is... An excellent compliment to a chocolate dessert, a fruit tart or vanilla ice cream. The oats really help this beer's mouth feel; it has a great smooth body that goes down great. In the finish of this beer, you can taste a slight hoppy taste, but it's not bitter. Just a nice slightly piney hop taste that compliments the chocolate as the beer warms. 

For those of you that have been reading for a while you might recall we drank this in summer as a chocolate stout float made with vanilla ice cream.

Note: Make sure to let this beer warm up before you drink it. If it's too cold, it definitely doesn't taste as good as it can. Seriously, drink this around 50-55 degrees F. You'll lose so much flavor if you drink it too cold. 

Other Options: Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Young's Double Chocolate Stout (from England), Stone Imperial Russian Stout or many others. Any good chocolaty stout will do. Check to see if your local craft brewery makes one!

This brings us to the end of Thanksgiving. Go take a nap or just lie on the couch and watch TV. It's a restful time, haha. Digest the food. Just remember, never Drink Craft Beer and drive! Have a good Thanksgiving everyone!

And, straight from the mouth (or, rather, keyboard) of Larry Bell, here is the news that makes our last two Bell's stories make sense! 

Bell's is currently in negotiations with two wholesalers to bring beer into Illinois. These two wholesalers would cover a very specific territory and distribution would not cover the entire city of Chicago. Initially, a handful of draft accounts will be started. At that time we expect to be sued by National Wines and Spirits of Indianapolis to stop distribution. The Executive VP of NWS has told me he intends to make a lawsuit as lengthy and as costly as possible. It will be up to the judge. So.. we may be back as Kalamazoo, we may be back as some other name, or we may not be back at all. Thank you to all who have been driving to Woodman's and others in WI, IN and southern Michigan. Please do not beermail me, as I will not be able to answer them for awhile. Just stay tuned as this thing plays out.

Larry Bell
President
Bell's Brewery, Inc.

Past stories on this:
Bells Brewing Company Introducing Two New Beers...For Illinois?
Another New Bell's Beer for Illinois?

 We here at DrinkCraftBeer.com say good luck Larry and Co.! Someone needs to work to make franchise law more fair! Distributors shouldn't have all the power. It's a system that worked in the past, but is now outdated and needs to be looked at again.

UPDATE WINNERS ANNOUNCED 

Well, while I admitted defeat earlier, I actually did call the winners accurately! The winners of the Samuel Adams LongShot Contest 2007 were:

 - Mike McDole - Double IPA
 - Rodney Kibzey  - Weizenbock

I was right all along! Supposedly the Double IPA is a Pliney the Elder clone... Can't wait to try that. And I always love a good weizenbock. Look out for this pack!

Oh yeah, and the Employee Winner was the Grape Pale Ale... I was hoping for the Rye IPA with Honey as we brewed one of those as our second recipe ever, but oh well. I'm intrigued by this offering. As long as it's not Smuckers Jam and beer, it could be good!

PAST WRITING ON THIS SUBJECT: 
So, the results of the Samuel Adams LongShot Contest are almost ready to be made public. From their site:

The results are in!  Congratulations to Mike McDole of California, Rodney Kibzey of Illinois, Dave Pobutkiewicz of New Jersey, and David Jackson of Georgia for being selected as finalists in the 2007 Samuel Adams® American Homebrew Contest™.  All four will join us at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver where we’ll announce which two will be included in the LongShot® variety pack. 

If you find yourself at the GABF, please be sure to stop by the LongShot booth to meet the finalists and vote on the 3rd brew to be included in the LongShot variety pack from our Samuel Adams employee homebrew contest.  

We here at DrinkCraftBeer.com, however, already have the results (or at least a very good tip on them). I'm going to put my money on Mike McDole with his Double IPA and Rodney Kibzey with his Weizenbock! Although, the fact that the other two finalists were named Dave supports our theory here that Dave's brew beer. Check out our interviews if you want proof, there's a lot of Daves in there. But, back to the LongShot Contest, those are the labels they have received approval on from COLA, so that's what I'm betting on.

For the employee beer, I'm going to guess the Maibock will win, even before they do voting at the Great American Beer Fest. Good luck to everyone, but I'm pretty happy with those results. Samuel Adams could use a hoppy beer in their arsenal.

For those who care, the people who didn't win brewed:

Dave Pobutkiewicz - Helles Bock
David Jackson - American IPA

Let's see if my predictions pan out.

 *** OK, so looks like my predictions may have been a little hasty, to say the least. They have approved 4 labels for the Homebrew Contest, and 2 more for the employee contest, as well as a third keg label. Also, the regional winner who brewed a Helles Bock, his entry is now called a Maibock, hence the above confusion about it being an employee brew So, now we have the possible winners as:

HOMEBREW:
Double IPA
American IPA
Maibock (was reported originally as a Helles Bock)
Weizenbock

EMPLOYEE BREW:
Grape Pale Ale
Weiss Beer with Orange
Rye IPA with Honey

Good luck to all!

In late summer to early fall, hops are harvested from their vines. For the most part, these hops are saved for use throughout the year and even for subsequent years. They are pelletized or stored as whole leaf hops. Part of this process for storage is drying them. In the past years, however, some brewers have taken a new approach towards this time of year. They will use these hops fresh of the vine. 

What this means is they will have hops shipped overnight from the source to their brewery. The faster the better, as well. You need to use these fresh hops within 24 hours of being picked. Most hops for the US market are produced in the Yakima Valley in Washington State. You can see how this would be a lot of effort for a beer. Also, brewers have to use a lot more hops by weight than usual, as hops lose up to 80% of their weight in the drying process. 

A fresh hop beer when done right, though, is completely worth this extra work. It adds extra layers of hop taste and aroma. Much more floral, this is a brew that features hops as a flavor and smell, instead of mostly bitterness. A light malt base is all you really need with a lot of late hops. These work best as Pale Ales, in our opinion, as anything bigger or more bitter starts to overwhelm the fresh hop character. 

Since hops are produced mainly in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, you see them much more up there. Living in Massachusetts, we get precious few. We have, however, grabbed all that we could find and tasted them for your benefit. And, without further ado, here are the fresh hop beers! 

Port Brewing High Tide Fresh Hop IPA
Appearance: Hazy Dirty Orange Fluffy White Head
Smell: Fresh Hops...is that really a surprise?

Taste: A bit sweet, a lemony citrus flavor comes through quickly. Notes of the alcohol come through, unfortunately not in a pleasing way. A bit too bitter on the back end with not enough finishing hops to round out the flavor. 

Overall: Not our favorite. It's got a one dimensional lemony hop character that isn't very pleasing, and the alcohol comes through in a strange way. You taste an unpleasant and muddled bitterness in the back of your mouth. We expected more coming from Port Brewing.

Sierra Nevada Harvest Fresh Hop Ale
Appearance: Redish amber, thick off white head
Smell: Hoppiest of them all very fresh smelling, piney aroma

Taste: No doubt this is a Sierra Nevada beer. What up cascade?! While very good, it doesn't have that fresh hop feel that the Great Divide did. That aside, $5 for a a 24oz beer this good is a deal and it still has a more complex and rewarding flavor than a typical pale ale or ipa. In Sierra Nevada Fashion it is a bit more bitter than most on the backend, but it's exactly what you'd expect. 

Overall: This is a very good beer. We got pretty excited for it as Sierra Nevada makes great hoppy beers such as Celebration and Bigfoot Barleywine. This was excellent, but we'd hoped for absolutely astounding. Maybe we went in with expectations too high, it is Sierra Nevada afterall. That said, though, it's what the High Tide should taste like...at half the cost. We'll will drink this a lot before it's gone from the shelves. It's much easier to find than the Great Divide and nearly as good.

Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale Ale
Appearance: Clear amber, thicker off white head
Smell: Clean resiny hop aroma, less hop aroma than the Port High Tide, but a much cleaner smell

Taste: Sweet Sassy Molassy that's good! Just enough up front bitterness followed by delicious citrus notes and fantastic hop spiciness. The late hop additions are quite apparent in the beer and add a very nice depth. It has a very nice multidimensional flavor that makes you excited for each sip. It's clean, it's hoppy and has just the right bitterness to allow all the flavors to come through. The malt takes a back seat to the hops, but in a way that's balanced. The hops are the headliner, but the malt sets the show as a great warm up band (sorry we're musicians too, we make corny references sometimes).

Overall: This is a great beer! We'd love to session some Great Divide Pale Ale any day! This beer makes us sad that fresh hop beers are only seasonal. Whatever we taste next is going to have a tough act to follow.

As we continued our travels across the Great Lakes region, we knew that New Holland had to be on our list. Having tried their Dragon's Milk about a year ago we knew this brewery was putting out some special beers. We stopped in the brewpub at lunch time to have some food and grab a couple pints before we met with their head of marketing, Fred Bueltman. Instantly we were impressed with the easy drinking poet stout and the grape fruity hoppiness of the Mad Hatter IPA. After a couple pints Fred met us down at our table in the pub. Don't shrug Fred off as just another marketing guy either. This brewery is truely run by a team here and each person's passion is very clear. Read on for some of the many exciting things New Holland is working on.

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