The label and the fact that Short’s Soft Parade is a fruit beer might have you wondering why I’m writing about it in February. Honestly it isn’t a summer beer. It isn’t a spring beer. It has no season and Soft Parade is available all year round, so clearly Short’s Brewing Company agrees with me.

The first time I tried Short’s Soft Parade I was at school in the U.P. (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.)  Friends had gone home to the northern Lower Peninsula and brought it back. I tried it. Thought it was weird. Decided I liked it. Weeks went by and out of nowhere I found myself wanting more. The next time my friends brought some back after a trip home I had more and, that time, I decided I loved it. It grew on me. Even now it seems as though I like Soft Parade more and more each time I drink it.

When first trying it, without reading the label, I couldn’t have told you exactly what the flavors were that I tasted. Now, of course, I realize it’s fruit. For anyone who has had fruit beer, that would instantly make you question the ability of my taste buds I have no doubt. The thing is, Soft Parade is unlike any other fruit type beer I have tasted. They usually smack you in the face with one specific fruit flavor. Or they are so sweet you don’t fancy drinking much, not even a single pint or bottle. Sometimes it’s a combination of too fruity and too sweet, but that isn’t the case with Soft Parade.

When you pour it Soft Parade smells crisp and bright with a beautiful red golden color, brighter and more pink than an amber. As you are pouring it the color of the beer, with the head rising, looks a bit like strawberries and water (or rum if you prefer) in a blender. The head rises to an off white eggshell. The first taste isn’t sweet or fruity. The high gravity ale hits you with rye and just a hint of fruit. I think the mix of the rye with a combination of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are what fooled me the first few times I tasted it. Some flavors dance alongside one another letting you taste one and then the other back and forth. Other flavors mix together and form something new, something harder to describe. That is what the Soft Parade combination was for me: something new.

If you take a sip and let it rest on your tongue for a bit the rye separates and comes to the forefront. The aftertaste leaves you with a bite of fruit. With 15 IBUs the hops don’t jump out at you much. It’s very drinkable which can get interesting at 8% ABV. The more you drink the more the fruit becomes a prominent taste rather than just an after bite. With each sip I could make a different argument as to which fruit stands out the strongest. Sometimes I am convinced it is the strawberry and the next sip it’s the blueberry and the raspberry. I can never decide.

Soft Parade is a good beer to drink with other beer. It’s palette cleansing without being too bright. You can drink anything around it and it stands up in flavor and interest. Drinking it in the middle of an evening of beer tasting brings out the fruit flavors a little stronger, in a good way.

(Speaking of drinking it with other beer, Short’s has an Oatmeal Stout with peanuts called Uber Goober. They blend it with the Soft Parade and call it PB&J Stout; available in November. I’m allergic to peanuts but not in an anaphylactic shock way so it won’t stop me from tasting and getting back to you. I’m extremely interested.)

Soft Parade always keeps me guessing. It is just as new and interesting and increasingly enjoyable each time I have some. The woman on the label may be in a beach chair, but I highly encourage you to drink some before beach weather. Soft Parade is appropriate on a snowy day…I promise! I’ve definitely stood around in the cold enjoying a bottle or two. It is absolutely one of my favorite beers.

Crispin Artisinal Reserve Lansdowne (fermented with Irish Stout yeast and organic molasses) is cloudy, unfiltered comfort in a bomber. Somehow they managed to bottle the feeling of sitting fireside in a pub while the weather is whipping outside (you'll see what I mean). The 22 oz. bottle starts out instructing you to give it a "full bottoms-up tilt & swirl" to mix in the unfiltered apple-wine sediment and you are going to be glad you did! This is the first cider that I've had to switch over to the white Drink Craft Beer glass - it's my darkest & densest so far! After the initial fizz from the pour, you don't see any bubbles moving around and with the murky cedar brown coloring it looks like a true unfiltered non-alcoholic cider. I'm talking the gallon or quarts you buy in the fall, that you might have drank at an elementary school Halloween or Thanksgiving party, and that you now sometimes heat up and mull. That's what this looks like, with the same cloudy brown with the red undertones, no bubbles, the light only gets a few millimeters into the glass. Lansdowne doesn't have any perfect beer comparison in appearance but the closest would be a red/brown ale - no one is going to be mistaking this for anything but a cider. To be honest I'm not quite sure what to expect coming in for the sip.

Pulling up the glass, my nose finds the molasses first. And is that a little bit of honey mixed in with the apple scent? After checking the label, yup, in addition to having racked apple wine and organic molasses, their Lansdowne lists a "kiss of organic honey." At the end you barely get a bit of stout yeast. Maybe it's because it's on the label and was in my mind, but just barely sneaking up the nose.

Sipping at last, here comes a rich, winter-autumny flood. First that apple wine with the burnt sugary taste that molasses has, almost like a bite of burnt caramel candied apple. Right after that you get the slightly heavier mouth feel of the cider, a lot slicker & smoother than usual, probably due to the Irish Stout yeast. Not too shockingly the best way to describe it is that light but weighty stillness that a sip of stout has, not a flurry of carbonation like many other ciders. The apple notes are not that bright, crisp Macintosh or Gala feel, more a subtle Red or Golden Delicious. Every exhale is all molasses and burnt sugar with the stout trying to shoulder it's way up. The further you get into your glass, the apple fights its way back to the tasting ground, but that molasses & honey notes hold onto every single breath out. This is a bottle to bring out on that rainy or snowy weekend when you have a good pot of stew going, those earthy savory meals are going to be complimented by the warm molasses notes and still weight of Lansdowne. It's a little like a boozy equivalent of that old blanket your grandmother knitted that you grab on those chilly raw days. Snuggle up with this Lansdowne as well.

I bought a 22oz bottle of this cider at Bauer Wines & Spirits, Newbury Street, Boston.