Lazarus First Noel

I'm almost done working my way through my holiday line up of beer that i've been saving, and now i've got brews to write about for weeks.  I was lucky enough to snag a bottle of Lazarus Brewing's 2018 version of First Noel, a winter wild ale brewed with 2 strands of Brettanomyces and refermented with figs, and it was delicious.  The 8.5% brew pours gold with a minimal and quickly dissipating head and smells of apple, oak, fig, and a little bit of funk.  The flavor is similar to the aroma, fruit notes and funky sour notes abounding.  It made for an excellent Christmas Eve wind down.

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Saint Arnold French Press

The folks over at Saint Arnold Brewing in Houston never disappoint, and they really kill it with their French Press, an imperial coffee porter.  The 9.4% brew pours a dark blackish brown with a tan head and smells of coffee, chocolate, and malt.  The flavor is similar to the aroma, but well balanced and never too sweet from the chocolate notes.  This one will be a wonderful Christmas treat.

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El Sputniko Imperial Stout

While this pandemic has certainly been a bitch, and we've lost some great breweries along the way, the folks over at Austin Beerworks have managed to tread these waters by releasing new and excellent beers on an almost weekly basis since March.  They've all been delicious, and they've all sold out.  One of the most recent is El Sputniko, a variant of the brewery's Sputnik Stout.  The 8.5% ABV El Sputniko is an imperial stout with coffee, ancho chile, cocoa nibs, and cinnamon, a beer take on Mexican chocolate.  The brew pours a dark blackish brown with an off white head and smells of chocolate, cinnamon, and spice.  The flavor is a nice and surprisingly smooth mix of said chocolate, cinnamon, and spices.  It's kind of Christmassy in its own way, and in general when you slap a luchador mask on something, you've piqued my interest.

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Bell's Old Fashioned Holiday Ale

And it seems that i may have just found my favorite brew of the season, the fantastic and delicious Old Fashioned Holiday Ale from Bell's Brewery.  The 10.8% beer is a bourbon barrel aged scotch ale with added dried cherries and orange peel.  It pours dark brown with a minimal head and smells of orange, spice, and alcohol.  The brew nails the cocktail taste and feel, flavors of orange, bourbon, and bitters highlighted up front, with the cherry and orange in particular becoming more evident as the beer warms.  It's a pricey 4-pack, but so, so good.

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