Devon and Jeff Drink Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving Beer Recommendations
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!
Craft Brewers Get Fresh With Your Hops
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.
Interview with Fred Bueltman of New Holland Brewing
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.
Interview with Ron Jeffries of Jolly Pumpkin
Devon And Jeff Drink The Great Lakes
Hi all you Craft Beer Drinkers!
For those that haven't checked out the forum, we've begun our Journey out to the midwest! We're on a 10 day, 2300 mile journey that will take us to 7 breweries where we'll be talking with brewers and owners.
Our schedule is as follows:
Friday Sept 7th
Jolly Pumpkin - morning
New Holland - Afternoon
Saturday Sept 8th & Sunday Sept 9th
Off - exploring the area
Monday Sept 10th
Founders Brewing Co
Tuesday Sept 11th
Bell's
Wednesday Sep 12th
Goose Island
Thursday Sept 13th
Three Floyds
Friday Sept 14th
Great Lakes Brewing Co.
We're on the road, but we'll do our best to give a brief daily recap of where we are and what we're doing, so check back often. Following the trip we'll have some great interviews and beer news for you all!
Day 1: Wed Sep 5th - We rolled into Buffalo, NY around 1am and set up camp...time for sleep
Day 2: We left Buffalo around 10am and rolled into our campsite in Michigan around 3 after a LONG Journey through Canada...wow that's a boring drive but it's all ok now because we just picked up an awesome selection of beer from both Bell's and New Holland which we'll be sampling tonight. We're gearing up for a big day tomorrow speaking with both Jolly Pumpkin and New Holland. We got some Expedition Stout, Double Cream Stout, Batch 8000 and Oberon from Bells and the Ichabod Pumpkin Ale from New Holland. We can't wait to try some of these! It's 7pm on day 2 of our beer road trip, and we still have yet to have had a beer! Oh well... Soon!
Day 2 UPDATE: We have a leak in our front driver side tire. Uh oh! Luckily we found a Sears Auto Center open late, and they fixed it! That would have seriously messed up our interview with Ron from Jolly Pumpkin and possibly our New Holland interview.
Day 3: We interviewed Ron from Jolly Pumpkin this morning. He's a really good guy! Unfortuanately, schedules changed and he had to brew this morning. But, being the good guy he is, he made time for us. We spoke about some new Bam Bieres, what's going on at JP and lots more! Definitely look for this interview when we get back to Boston! Right now we're sitting in the New Holland Brewpub. This place rocks! We're right next to the brew system. We're getting ready to do our interview, and just drank a couple of delicious beers. The Road Brewer was recently here too! Read about is here. Jeff had the beer... Delicious! We're coming back tonight, after the interview, to do some more "research" on this "Art in Fermented Form!" We have nothing to do now until Monday when we meet with Dave at Founders. We have a whole weekend to chill and drink Michigan beer. We'll keep you all in the know!
We then shot over to New Holland to meet with Fred Bueltmann. Their Dragon's Milk is amazing and the Poet Stout...well it kicks ass. We'll have a great full interview up on this soon, including some cool info on craft spirits. We love craft beer, but we're certainly intrigued by craft whiskey, gin, and rum as well. New Holland is doing some very interesting things in this area.
Day 4: It's our first day off, so we decided to roam around a little. And by roam we mean we went to Founder's. Holy crap the beer is good here, not that we need to tell you that. The bar is great. Our bartender Melissa was awesome and gave us the lowdown on a lot of the beers, ad eventually put the porter on for us...mmmmm...porter.
Well by mid afternoon we reaized that we prob needed to stop drinking or we'd be drunk soon. We got some food and then headed over to The Hideout, an AWESOME bar that Randy, a guy sitting at the bar at Founder's told us about. When we came in Randy was at the bar already. Once again we had an awesome bartender. Melissa was really helpful in telling us about the beers they made. Their Imperial Stout is amazing, and is a must try if you are in the area.
Day 5: Another slow day we went to a bar in grand rapids, Grand Rapids brewing and a local liquor store, basically we bought a lot of beer.
Day 6: We're off to interview Dave at Founder's. This will be our third time at Founder's this trip (yeah it's that good...and we went twice on day 4)
