Mug Warrior

I was looking through the cases at the Frontier Saloon last night and had almost resolved myself on a six pack of the Golden Monkey and I was slapped with a wonderful feeling unmatched by 26 years of present unwrapping. Sweet baby Jesus, I wish you were born more than once a year. I spotted what that bright star was pointing me to. Tröegs Brewing Company has shipped this years Mad Elf.

I’ll be damned if Christmas doesn’t come earlier every single year. It’s not even black Friday and the Christmas crap is already popping up in the stores. Bah-freaking-humbug. This encroachment into my life of my least favorite holiday has finally pushed into one of my favorite things in life and for the first time I am elated.

I was introduced to the Mad Elf last year around Christmas shopping season. Mug Warrior writer Mark, myself, and our friend Geoff, went to the Frontier for drinks prior to shopping, and the Mad Elf was on tap. Two pitchers between three guys later and I had my best shopping experience since Mark and I downed a bottle of Southern Comfort before shopping a few years ago.

It’s a dark red Belgian Ale packed like Santa’s bag with honey and cherries. At 11% ABV it packs a wallop like Prancer’s hoof to your groin, but it goes down so smooth and nice that you’ll feel like Mrs. Claus is massaging your yule log. Not only that, but tomorrow morning when you get up early to make the toys, you won’t have a hangover.

The Tröegs brothers may have saved Christmas for me in a way the Grinch never could. Find yourself some Mad Elf and bring in the holiday right.

Taste and the good old-fashioned ability to get you drunk are among the top ways to finding a good beer, but what attracts you to trying a new one? Aesthetics, whether you consciously know it or not, play a big part when you’re selecting an unfamiliar beer to take for a test drink. Checking out the shape of the tap, looking at the graphics on the case in your distributor, or eyeing up the Beer Face (the bottle’s label) all can play a strong role in legitimizing a potential buy. A weak Face makes a beer look like it doesn’t have it’s act together. Lets take a look at the Beer Face of Hofbräu Oktoberfest and see how effective they are in conveying the sense of its storied heritage.

Being based in Munich, the royal Hofbräuhaus brewery was a key beer supplier to the first Oktoberfest of 1810. Two years later, in an attempt to offer King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria a top-notch brew with some extra alcohol (man, because being a King back then was ROUGH, damn drafty castles), the “Oktoberfestbier” from Hofbräu München was born.

The modern Oktoberfest’s bottle has 3 labels: a rhombus-shaped one on the neck bearing their logo, a rectangular informational one on the back, and the ovular supposed show-stopper on the front. This is the Face, the one that is supposed to envoke “How YOU doin’?” from strangers. The color palette of consists of a royal blue, a warm yellow, gold and white. Set against a green bottle, I’m thinking of skipping through a summer field in Sweden, not a brisk fall night of drunken chanting with my buds. These colors are very strong, but aren’t working. So what’s left?

At the center of the ovular label, is a quant illustration of the Hofbräu tent at Oktoberfest, and a surrounding festival atmosphere incorporating horses and a ferris-wheel. This is their shot at conveying the real “feel” of the Oktoberfest experience through a Bob Ross miniature. Not getting that feeling much it across the bar, and not seeing much more with my magnifying glass.

Comparing this to their regular label for the original brew, let’s see what they did different for the crown jewel of Munich’s great gift to the world, Oktoberfest. Not much except an updated doodle better suited for the napkin your bottle sits on. Inappropriate colors and a lack of realign effort for the label of such a seemingly important authentic German brew. Man, all that drinking around Oktoberfest makes Germans lazy!

Take a look at the Beer Face in your hand. What’s looking good and successfully telling you it’s that time of year to throw some bratwurst on the grill?

I read an article at msnbc yesterday about how the big brewers (Coors, Anheuser, Miller) have started creating small batch, micro style brews as seasonals. I think that’s pretty cool, and as a man who has been known to indulge his trashier side with a Bud (and who has also used Bud in lieu of water to clean glasses while tasting), I would be willing to give the Micro Macro’s a shot. It seems like they are only marketed to the midwestern market right now, but if anyone knows anyways I can get my hands on some it would be much appreciated.

Also I didn’t know Coors made Blue Moon, I suppose you learn something you really should have already known, everyday.

I was introduced to Pumpkin Ale’s several years ago and was immediately enamored with them. I was drinking Dogfishhead Punkin Ale (which was brewed in celebration of the annual Punkin Chunkin even in Milmont, Delaware. It tasted like a pumpkin pie in a glass. It was heavenly. Jarrod and I drank it with dinner, desert, and waking up the next morning in possesion of a growler of it, for breakfast too. In recent years the flavor seemed to go down hill, I may have out grown it, it just wasn’t the same though. I desperately wanted to find something as good as that first year.

The other day I picked up a case of their Imperial Pumpkin Ale by Weyerbacher. Weyerbacher is quickly becoming one of my favourite breweries, convenient given they are local to me (located in Easton, PA). After the Blithering Idiot incident, which is a story for another time, my interest in this crafter was peaked and have had made it a point to sample some of their beers at any opportunity I might get. Seeing this Ale on the shelf of a local distributor I couldn’t resist. Untasted, I took the case to the counter.

The label of each bottle bears a menacing Jack O’Lantern holding his scepter high, cape flowing. Behind the king lies sit his court of pumpkins, looking terrified. It’s a fairly dark label. I could tell I was in for a treat suiting the halloween season coming soon. It did not disappoint.

The beer itself has a dark orange, tending almost to red, color to it, with a thin, light orange head. It smells strongly of spice. While drinking it leaves a very thin amount of lacing down the glass. Not heavy at all despite it’s earthy spice and pumpkin flavours, it is definitly drinkable. It warms the stomach and the body, given it’s higher than normal ABV, and makes one thing it would probably be perfect for taking the bite out of the october air. Cold this beer is good, but I prefer to leave the bottle out for about twenty minutes before pouring since I find the warmer temperatures really bring out the flavor of this beer. This beer is definitly a suitable replacement for that Punkin Ale, and I am happy to have made it’s acquaintance.