A craft beer blog written by the experts of The Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club
Recently the fine folks over at Brew Fuse reviewed a variety of beer subscription services, and we’re excited to announce we came out on top! Brew Fuse praised our selection of different club options, such as the Hop-Heads Beer Club and the Rare Beer Club, as well as our focus on quality selections.
You can check our their review here: brewfuse.com/microbrewed-beer-of-the-month-club-review-2019/
Cheers!
It has been at least a few years since the Rare Beer Club featured a weizenbock as one of its featured selections. The most recent example I dug up was Meantime Brewing Co.’s Limited Edition Weizen Double Bock, which the club featured back in August 2014. This style, as is true for many of the more out-there traditional beer styles in the world, has tended to find more frequent expression outside its country of origin (although many of the tastiest classic examples of the weizenbock space still definitely come from Germany). But the fact that the club’s 2014 weizenbock example was from England—and this newest one from Les Trois Mousquetaires in Quebec—kinda echoes the general state of the weizenbock style overall.
The history of weizenbock generally traces its lineage back to Schneider Aventinus, which was introduced by famed weissbier producer Private Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn in Bavaria back in 1907. That said… writer K. Florian Klemp noted in the (since-defunct) All About Beer Magazine that bock used wheat way back in the pre-Reinheitsgebot 14th century; in that frame, this combo of wheat + strong malty beer has at least been explored a bit before. For modern drinkers: I’ll say that these beers are some of my favorite to seek out, combining the fluffy, toasty contributions of wheat with that rich, malty focus of a bock or doppelbock.
If you’re digging the Les Trois Mousquetaires example, there’s a decent chance you’ll be able to find some other weizenbocks locally. Aventinus, Weihenstephaner’s Vitus, and Ayinger’s Weizenbock are worth checking out and on the more readily available side. My personal fav in this general space is probably The Livery’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Wheat Trippelbock from Michigan—which clearly takes everything up a few notches. Have a local weizenbock you’re digging, or a fav classic? Let the club know what’s tasting good on Twitter: @RareBeerClub.
If a fruit exists, there’s a solid chance it’s been made into a beer by this point. But mango is one of those periphery fruits that, while used nowhere near as frequently as classic additions like, say, cherries and raspberries, still tends to feature consistently well in beers like tropical IPA. Hop varieties like Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic and Azacca can give mango notes to beer sans the addition of actual fruit, while providing easy anchor points when using actual mango.
There’s definitely more than one way to mango. Hundreds of mango varieties and cultivars exist, turning yellow to oxblood in color when ripe, and they’re cultivated all over the world (with around half of the world’s production coming from India). When my wife and I were teaching school down in Nicaragua for a few months, there were these massive mango trees outside the schoolhouse, and the kids knocked the fruit down with long sticks and ate every single one green. (YMMV when it comes to trying this out with varieties found stateside…)
For folks looking for more mango-y options, there are a bunch about. In additional to your local brewer’s seasonal options, Omnipollo’s Bianca Mango Lassi Gose has seen some solid distribution stateside, melding mango puree to a gose framework.
For a fruited IPA of more biblical proportions, keep an eye out for To Øl’s Garden of Eden, an IPA with additions of apricot, guava, mango, papaya, and passionfruit. It might even prevent scurvy.
Got a mango or fruit beer you’ve been digging? Let us know what’s tasting good on Twitter via @RareBeerClub.
Anchorage Brewing Co.’s Nelson Sauvin, one of the two Rare Beer Club featured beers this month, is brewed with 100% Nelson Sauvin hops—a particularly forward variety originating from New Zealand’s Plant & Food Research back in 2000. The variety comes from the New Zealand “Smooth Cone” hop, itself an offspring of old-school California Cluster.
Characteristics of Nelson Sauvin hops emphasize a focus on “fresh crushed gooseberries” (a common descriptor for New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc). The hops also can include tropical character along the lines of lychee, passion fruit, lime, mango… Nelson Sauvin was one of the major early impact hops, and it can bring exceptional potency and zest into a beer.
If you’re digging the Anchorage Nelson Sauvin, where its pungent qualities are set alongside the impact of Brettanomyces, there are at least a couple other examples highlighting these hops (with greater availability). Alpine Beer Co.’s Nelson IPA is one of the key options with larger distribution, while 8Wired’s HopWired IPA is packed with Nelson Sauvin alongside various other New Zealand varieties. Mikkeller’s also featured a variety of Nelson-Sauvin-y releases.
Have a local New Zealand-hop beer you’ve been digging? Something like Motueka more your thing? Let us know what’s been hitting the spot on Twitter at @RareBeerClub.
Not that we could use any comfort, but the semi-solid firmament of winter seasonals can be pretty reassuring. Over the course of a year, there aren’t too many seasonal beer releases that I still keep up with, which I think makes me busy and normal. With so many signals firing in beer and beyond, I’m just not getting into seasonal habits as often as I used to. My wife and I got into snagging around February each year—back when we lived on the east coast within distribution range. Victory’s Summer Love, a golden ale that’s right up there with Firestone Walker’s 805 for us, remains a summertime staple. And we typically snag Sierra Nevada’s annual Oktoberfest collabs. Beyond that… it’s mostly winter seasonals.
Between picking out things to share with family over the holidays and/or just having things to look forward to as we head into drearier months (though appreciating the rain in NorCal at the moment), one tends to make deeper attachments to end-of-year seasonals. We picked up a case of Sierra Nevada Celebration as soon as it hit shelves, as we do. Ditto for a sixpack of Anchor’s annually tweaked Christmas ale. Going forward, any seasonal habits we pick up will probably be at our go-to breweries here in Sonoma County. Have you been keeping up with seasonals the way you used to? Which winter releases are you still looking forward to each year? Let us know what’s been hitting the spot over on Twitter via @RareBeerClub.
So you’ve got a beer lover on your holiday list that you’ve procrastinated buying the perfect present for. Now that it’s down to the wire, you can either risk shopping online and pay for expedited shipping or risk battling crazy shoppers, parking lots, and standing in mall lines.
We’ve got some last-minute holiday gift ideas as you can never go wrong the perfect gift of craft beer. The best part about these ideas is that they can easily be purchased online or over the phone in less than five minutes without ever needing to leave the house — no gift wrapping required!
Chances are, your beer fan might fall into one of the selections below.
The U.S. Microbrewed Beer Club The Original Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club has focused on consistently delivering two things to our members: Quality and Variety.
The Hops Head Beer Club is the newest subscription box in the lineup. The club focuses on a variety of hoppy beer styles, including IPAs, Double IPAs, IPLs, and other well-hopped styles.
The U.S. and International Variety Beer Club for the beer lover that wants the most variety in their subscription box from both U.S. Craft Beers and International selections. Discovery of the world of beer.
The International Beer Club for those most interested primarily in exploring beers from time-honored international breweries.
The Rare Beer Club for those that are seeking the exclusives, limited releases, rare celebratory craft beers, some barrel aged and beers you can cellar. This is the ultimate club for them. These come in 750ml bottles, many of which are corked and caged.
Design Your Own Club™ offers you the flexibility to combine our expertly selected Beer, Wine, Cigar, Cheese, Chocolate, and Flower subscription clubs into one customizable membership.
Any order with three or more shipments includes a FREE bartender’s bottle opener. Check out what it looks like in the image at the top of this page.
Celebrator Beer News magazine America’s premier craft beer news magazine subscription focusing on craft brewing.
Create your very own DIY Craft Beer Advent Calendar and give the gift of beer every day leading up till Christmas.
For those who like to travel to different U.S. breweries and bring something back with them, growlers are a great option and come in a variety of different styles and sizes.
Just like wine, beer should be poured into the appropriate glassware. Give the gift of beer glasses to accompany any craft beer gift.
Tradition #1: Pick a kick-ass holiday seasonal beer and hoist that baby every year when you’re hanging your lights Let’s face it, hanging lights sucks. It’s a cold, lonely, and thankless job, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Each year, I put down 3-4 bottles of Anchor’s Christmas Ale, which more than likely makes a 2-hour job into a 3-hour job, but ever since I started this tradition, I look forward to hanging those babies. This year, a good buddy donated some aged samples for the cause, and I have some going back as far as 2005, so it may be a 5-hour job when it’s all said and done.
Our legal team would like us to inform you that MonthlyClubs.com® and The Rare Beer Club® in no way endorse drinking while hanging Christmas lights, i.e. don’t be climbing any ladders with a few winter warmers in your gullet!
I love doing this, and as a member of The Bruery’s Reserve Society for a couple of years, far too often I’d bust out some variation for Black Tuesday, their 19-20%+ ABV bourbon-barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout, on some unsuspecting non-believer. Most are shocked and had no idea that beer could be so good. It’s fun. Give it a try.
This one may be a no-brainer and add no value to the reader what so ever, but I felt inclined to point out the obvious. We’ve all got our favorite go-to’s. Set sail from that safe harbor and challenge your palate a bit on a couple of styles. Maybe plan to drink one each Friday leading up to the 25th…Or whenever you’re thirsty. You can even make it fun by creating a Craft Beer Advent Calendar stuffed with holiday and winter beer styles you’ve never tried.
I used to live on Balboa Island in my 20s and we’d hit this sweet beach bar called The Saloon on the Peninsula every year in late November to lap up many, many pints of Anchor’s Christmas Ale over few games of darts and pool. It doesn’t get much better. Damn, Anchor’s getting some good press outta me today.
So this one has the benefit of not only making you look like some kind of super stud when you show up with a magnum in hand when everyone else is sporting a bottle of wine, but also ensures that you’ll be drinking good beer for at least the first 2-3 beers…Stay close to the prize.
Do all five traditions, Grasshopper, and it is time for you to leave… the year behind.
Prost!
Kris
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