Christmas Beer Crosscut 12.14.19: Lighted Boatus
Feeling disenchanted this holiday season? Well, there’s a holiday for that. A Festivus for the Rest of Us, created by Seinfeld character Frank Costanza who thought the holidays became to be too much: too much buying, too much stress, too much glitz. Costanza’s Festivus holiday included a Festivus pole, feats of strength and the ritual airing of grievances.
What other holidays take place during this time of year?
Peaks and Pints found one without an admission charge: Lighted Boatus.
SATURDAY, DEC. 14: Lighted Boatus
Wake up a 10 a.m.
Watch A Christmas Cruise with Vivica A. Fox three times.
Talk anti-fouling paint and jerry-rigging with yacht salespeople on Dock Street until they want to kill you.
Hit the free Tacoma Yacht Club’s Lighted Boat Parade along the Ruston Way waterfront at 6 p.m.
Drop by Peaks and Pints for the holiday beer flight that we call Christmas Beer Crosscut 12.14.19: Lighted Boatus.
Leave Peaks with a six-pack of Kulshan Tree-dimensional IPA.
Crack open a Tree-D IPA and add re-decorate your tree with a boat theme.
Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve
5% ABV, 22 IBU
Rogue Ales Santa’s Private Reserve is a Belgian dark ale packed with tangerines and boysenberries. Rogue Brewmaster John Maier must have been listening to “The Twelve Days of Christmas” but hates drummers as this craft beer was brewed with 11 ingredients: Munich, Carahell, Special W, Caramalt and C-75 malts, Magnum and Rogue Farms Independent hops, Dark Belgian Candi Sugar, brown sugar, Imperial Workhorse Yeast and Free Range Coastal Water. The candi sugar enhances the sweet and tart characteristics of the fruit, and the beer takes a little bit from both sides of the list: it will put a little color on your cheeks, but finishes on the sweet side.
Brasserie Dupont Avec Les Bons Voeux
9.5% ABV, 28 IBU
In January 1970, Belgian brewery Brasserie Dupont needed a gift to dole out to key clients during the holidays. Key chains just weren’t going to cut it. Since the brewery produces amazing ales they thought why not gift an ale: Avec Les Bons Voeux, which translates as “with best wishes.” It blew minds. Dupont eventually released it commercially, albeit in limited quantities. A saison boasting a hefty 9.5-per-cent alcohol, it pours with a hazy tint and is almost buttery-smooth in texture. There’s mellow fruitiness and yeasty bread flavor at its core, with lively clove and licorice notes folded in, set against a solidly bitter backbone.
Kulshan Kitten Mittens Winter Ale
7.4% ABV, 39 IBU
Kulshan Brewing adds four different malts — 2-row, Chocolate, roasted barley and Munich — to Kitten Mittens Winter Ale giving it the rich, medium-bodied winter warmer we adore with a nose of milk chocolate and a touch of brown malt. The body strikes a nice mix of easy malty notes and medium sweet chocolate balanced by earthy hop notes, thanks to the Apollo, Willamette and Fuggle hops. We dig the touch of chocolate liquor on the finish.
Reuben’s Three Ryes Men
12.2% AVB
This is the third vintage of Reuben’s Brews’ GABF-winning barrel-aged barleywine. Three Ryes Men is brewed with malted rye, flaked rye, and crystal rye and then aged in whiskey barrels where it has rested. After aging, the beer has developed flavors that according to the brewery offer a full body with malt driven caramel and chocolate notes, and layers of warming complexity.
Maritime Pacific Tannenbaum Jolly Roger Christmas
9% ABV
George and Jane Hancock founded the ma-and-pa Maritime Pacific Brewing Company in an old transmission shop in 1990 in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. In 1997 they opened the Jolly Roger Taproom named, as they say, “in honor of our most popular holiday brew”: Jolly Roger Christmas Ale. A beer fridge staple, Jolly Roger English Strong Ale combines rich malt character with a blend of fresh Northwest Chinook and Cascade hops. Once again, Maritime gave its famous winter ale a spruce treatment. Spruce tips have been used in the brewing process for hundreds of years. They were one of the main additions in beer before people learned about brewing with hops. The fresh, tender tips have a mellow pine scent and a crisp flavor.
