The Holidays: Euro-Style

If there's one thing to be said about Europeans, they don't mess around when it comes to beers that celebrate the holidays. Every region of Europe has it's own style and flare.

If you'd like to get to know the Holidays "Euro Style" I suggest you head over to the Bayou, ASAP and partake of the most diverse holiday beer selection in the state.

Some are new, some are returning favorites. All are incredible and in limited supply.

New This Year:

Struise Tsjeeses Reserva - Struise took four barrels of Tsjeeses and gave it a 6 month vacation aging in oak barrels. Mark must be having an affair with someone at the DABC. How else could he manage to get such a hard to get beer? 10.0% abv. Coming Soon

Fantome Noël - A very dark and entirely unique holiday seasonal beer. Reportedly spiced with honey, caramel, coriander, black pepper, and other secret ingredients. 10.0% abv.

La Choulette de Noël - Stronger, fuller flavored version of the classic bière de garde. The New York Times anointed this beer the ultimate bière de garde, and rightly so. It’s a rich, rare treat from one of France’s old guard craft breweries. 7.0% abv.

Reindeer Droppings - Falling from the sky like little bombs of flavor come the Reindeer Droppings! Each one is sweet like California raisins, but bitter and pungent like a freshly peeled grapefruit, lip-smackingly tasty...then 'pow!' it's gone. 6.0% abv.

Returning Champs:

Ølfabrikken Kloster Jul - Ølfabrikken (The Beer Factory) is a small experimental brewery on the vibrant Danish beer scene. Kloster Jul is a hoppy Christmas Ale brewed with large quantities of American Chinook hops and wonderfully spiced with coriander and cinnamon. 8.0% abv.

Mikkeller Santa's Helper - A Belgian quadruple style ale. Delicious with big flavors of cookie dough, chocolate, figs and spice. The addition of actual cocoa powder makes this one incredibly special. 11.0% abv. Coming Soon

Mikkeller From/To - The dedicated guys at Mikkeller have simply outdone themselves with this holiday version of a Baltic Porter. Earthy and hoppy with hits of coffee, dark fruit and a full roastiness. A great example of the new hoppy Belgian artisan beer movement. 8.0% abv.

Struise Tsjeeses - (unoaked) A deep blonde abbey-style trippel that has been aged for 8 months over different stone fruits. Once you try one you too will say “Tsjeeses, what a beer”. 10.0% abv. Coming Soon

Thiriez Bière de Noël - A beautiful red-gold wheat beer, with quite subtle all-spice and orange peel added. A slightly tart and quite refreshing festive brew. Champagne for the true beer lover. 6.0% abv

Bad Elf - Old England meets the new world in this strong, warming winter IPA. 6.0% abv

Very Bad Elf - A Special Old Ale brewed from a 1795 recipe using specially-grown ingredients. 7.5% abv

Seriously Bad Elf - An English Double Ale with a bit of Belgian character. Unique for the U.K. 9.0% abv

Criminally Bad Elf - A boffo Barley Wine. Same basic recipe as Thomas Hardy's Ale. 10.5% abv. Coming Soon

Insanely Bad Elf - Billed as an Imperial Red Ale this is a gorgeous and tasty beer. 12.0% abv. Coming Soon

Warm Welcome - A stronger brown ale with more hops than you'd expect. 6.0% abv

Santa's Butt - Strong porter. The original name for porter was Entire Butt, meaning the whole barrel. 6.0% abv

Pickled Santa - Amber, spiced Christmas Ale. 6.0% abv.

Lump of Coal - Liquid consolation for a depressing holiday. Considering how bad you have been, this bittersweet chocolate stout is more than you deserve. 8.0% abv.

Reindeer's Revolt - A golden amber, hop-accented, English “winter warmer” brewed without spices. 6.0% abv.

And speaking of Europe. A couple of Utah breweries shlepped their suds all the way to Munich, Germany for the European Beer Star Awards and came away with a couple of trophies.

In the Ultra Strong Beer category, the Silver went to Uinta Brewing Company's Labyrinth Black Ale. No surprise there, eh?

And in the Imperial India Pale Ale category Epic's Hopulent IPA came away with a Bronze. That's two bronzes for two of Epic's IPAs in two months.

Nicely done Epic & Uinta!

Please note that not all of the above mentioned beers are available today. Some will be released closer to the end of November.... Can't have all the damn Holiday beer gone before the holidays even get here! right?

Also, a lot of RSVP's were received yesterday for the Holiday Tasting. Don't put it off, this party will defiantly fill up sooner than expected.

Prost!

More Holiday Suds Arrive!!!

Mark Alston at the Bayou has just receive a stellar list of holiday and not-so-holiday ales for the intermountain beer kindred. This years batch has some familiar labels, as well as some new, hard to find bottles that rarely find themselves to this side of the Zion curtain. Theses are special orders for the Bayou only and should last through the end of the year. Here they are. Thanks Uncle Mark!!! Cheers.

Ridgeway

Bad elf.

Very bad elf.

Seriously bad elf.

Criminally bad elf.

Insanely bad elf.

Warm Welcome.

Santa's Butt.

Pickled Santa.

Mikkeller Santa's Helper

Mikkeller From/To

Olafbrikken Kloster Jul

De Ranke Pere Noel

De La Senne Xmas Zinnebir

Serafjin Christmas Angel

Struise Tsjeeses

Jenlain Noel

Kulmbacher Eisbock

New & Returning Beers for Utah's Holidays

Who's your buddy?

Who's your Pal?

You know I've got your back, and that I'd never let you guys and gals enter the Christmahanukwanzaka season without a little liquid holiday help. So I've compiled a list of new and returning beers to help ease your upcoming burdens, or at the very least to help wash down Auntie Roberta's pineapple, fig upside-down, uber-strudel. These beers are only available at our glorious state liquor stores, unless otherwise noted. And if your aware of anything not on my list please post it up in the comments section. Cheers!

New Local UTAH Beers:

WASATCH WHITE LABEL BELGIAN STYLE WITBIER

WASATCH WINTERFEST SEASONAL ALE

REDROCK REVE' BELGIAN TRIPPLE ALE

Domestic, Craft & Imports:

FIRESTONE WALKER PALE 31

FIRESTONE WINDSOR PALE ALE

AVBC WINTER SOLSTICE'08

FULL SAIL WASSAIL ALE

FULL SAIL WRECK THE HALLS'08

FULL SAIL EQUINOX ESB

FULL SAIL LTD 02

FULL SAIL RESERVE 21 DOPPELBOCK

FULL SAIL BOURBON IMPERIAL PORTER

MACTARNAHANS BLACKWATCH STOUT

AFFLIGEM DUBBEL ALE

SIERRA NEVADA CELEBRATION ALE

HAZED AND CONFUSED IPA

ROGUE DOUBLE DEAD GUY ALE

SPANISH PEAKS HONEY RASPBERRY ALE

The Following are from the "Bad Elf" Line From Ridgeway Brewing in the U.K. (only available at the Bayou)

BAD ELF

VERY BAD ELF

SERIOUSLY BAD ELF

CRIMINALLY BAD ELF

INSANELY BAD ELF

SANTA'S BUTT

WARM Welcome

Insanely Bad Elf

I don't know... I guess I should have been closer paying attention. The label was a dead give-away, I should have noticed the clues. It was my own fault. I mean it's called Insanely Bad Elf for Christ's sake!!! The label has some kind of sociopathic mutant elf all bound up and and looking like he's ready to molest a cat.

This is another from the boys at Ridgway. It comes from a line of "theme beers" the brewery does around the holidays. It started with Bad Elf, then to Very Bad, then Seriously, Criminally and finally Insane. I haven't tried the others but this reminds me of one of those beers that people make just to say "We can make one of those."

Poured a clear ruby red with absolutely no head at all. The nose was boozy with raisin and toffee. The taste started sweet with caramel then transitioned into spicy raisin and fig. The finish was syrupy, boozy and cloying. A good dose of piney hops would have made this a much more palatable brew, but as it sits it's a tough drink'n little bitch. It's label calls it it an Imperial Red but let's not kid ourselves it's all barley wine. It's abv dials in at 11.2% and never lets you forget it. As a holiday warmer it will warm you right the fuck up. Straight jacket not included.