It was beginning to sound a lot like Christmas as U.S. Army Soldiers from 56th Army Band will take the Rialto Theater tonight for a free holiday concert. Affectionately referred to as “America’s First Corps Band,” and assigned to I Corps, stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the 56th Army Band is the Army’s only active-duty band supporting the Pacific Northwest. The band was originally assigned to the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized). When the division deactivated in 1993, the band was reconstituted under I Corps, as the 56th Army Band. In addition to musically supporting I Corps and Fort Lewis, the ensemble performs for a variety of audiences throughout the western United States, including an annual free holiday concert in Tacoma. Tacoma Arts Live hosts “Home For The Holidays”, a festive and rousing concert presented by the Army’s best, together with all your favorite holiday music and carols, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, in the Rialto Theater in downtown Tacoma. Peaks & Pints suggests you stop by for a holiday beer flight before or after the concert. It’s an in-house, holiday beer flight we’re calling, Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Saluting Carols.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Saluting Carols
Huyghe Delirium Noël
10% ABV, 20 IBU
Brewed only for the Christmas and New Year, the pink elephant adorns Brouwerij Huyghe‘s Delirium Noël’s label: skiing, sledding, pulling Santa’s sleigh; the Pink Elephant does it all. Delirium Noel is a big, spicy beer with a lot of dried fruit character and touch of alcohol to let you know that you’re drinking a beer with a double-digit ABV. Its appearance is a superb warm copper to red color, recalling Delirium’s Nocturnum except in its taste. It hides its subtlety by multiple levels of flavor and should be approached with confidence, with a tinge typical Christmas, sauced with a sweet touch, then bitterness.
Grains of Wrath Hail Santa!
6.7% ABV
Santa Claus performs miracles and wonders every Christmas Eve. He can create and deliver virtually any present any child can imagine. He can fly through the sky and deliver these gifts to millions of children all over the world — all in one night. And not just any old presents but exactly the ones desired by each individual child. To accomplish this mission, he must have the ability to be present almost everywhere at once. Hail Santa! Grains of Wrath honors Santa with this spiced holiday ale made with cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and honey.
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
6.8% ABV
Now that it’s wintertime, where do all the hops go? They’re currently hibernating in this yearly seasonal from California’s Sierra Nevada brewery. Amid the many big and malty winter ales, Celebration Ale provides a comfortable winter home for the season’s displaced hops. A little darker than the average American IPA, this ale has a citrusy, piney, and resinous hop character and a medium body.
Holy Mountain No Presents For Christmas
6.8% ABV
Holy Mountain Brewing has released a new winter IPA with fresh kilned hops that is a CELEBRATION of sorts of one for our favorite Christmas beers as well as the 40th anniversary of the release of Melissa, the debut studio album by Danish heavy metal band Mercyful Fate, released in October 1983 through Roadrunner Records. It’s for “Every single one of you dirtbags who unabashedly love Mercyful Fate and King Diamond,” states Holy Mountain.
Old Stove Warming Hut
7.5% ABV
Brewed for Peaks & Pints Pray For Snow Party last month, Old Stove Brewing’s Warming Hut is another take on a winter IPA. A hefty addition of rye malt gives this beer a subtle bready spiciness that accentuates the upfront bitterness, followed by a burst of citrus, tropical fruit, and pine — in both flavor and aroma — from Citra, Simcoe, Mosaic, and Warrior hops, along with a heaping amount of Centennial and Mosaic in the dry hop.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
