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Featured Beers - December 2014
Featured Brewery & Beer |
The U.S. Microbrewed Beer Club
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The U.S. and International Variety Beer Club
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The Hop-Heads Beer Club
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The International Beer Club
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The Rare Beer Club®
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4 styles: 12 bottles |
4 styles: 12 bottles |
3 styles: 12 bottles |
2 styles: 12 bottles |
2 styles: 2, 4 or 6 btls |
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Mikkeller - Santa’s Little Helper 2014 | |||||||||||||||
Grand Teton Brewing - Vintage 2014 | |||||||||||||||
Hofbrauhaus Wolters - Wolters Pilsener | |||||||||||||||
Wells & Young’s Brewing Company - Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale | |||||||||||||||
Mad River Brewing Company - Jamaica Red Ale | |||||||||||||||
Mad River Brewing Company - Steelhead Porter | |||||||||||||||
Newport Storm Brewery - Winter Porter | |||||||||||||||
Newport Storm Brewery - India Point Ale |
Unmatched Variety by style, brewery & country
Choose from Five different Beer Clubs offering unmatched variety by brewery,
country of origin, and beer style to suit your specific tastes.
- Style: Porter
- ABV: 6.5%
- Int’l Bittering Units (IBUs): 34
- Serving Temperature: 50-55º F
- Suggested Glassware: Pint Glass or Mug
- Hops: Tettnanger, Willamette
- Malts: Pale, Wheat, Crystal, Peated, Rauch
- Country: United States
Steelhead Porter cuts a fine figure in the glass, with a dark coffee brown hue topped with a robust head of foam. Brewed with peated and smoked malts, this is a somewhat unusual porter with a distinct Scotch Ale influence. As such, smoky notes appear on the nose, along with a deep roast character and a prominent nuttiness. There’s a certain implied sweetness too, along with a touch of spicy hops. Look for the flavor to present notes of charred...
- Style: Dark Belgian Ale with Spices
- ABV: 10.9%
- Serving Temperature: 52–59° F
- Suggested Glassware: Tulip, Burgundy Glass, or Snifter
- Country: Denmark
This is exactly the sort of beer we tend to look for when the temperatures plummet, pouring a deep chocolate-brown, like the darkest sort of caramelized candi syrup we’ve seen, its edge a perimeter of gold. At first glance, blind, we’d guess imperial stout—or maybe upon a closer inspection we’d go with a sweet stout, or imperial porter. It’s a hefty-looking beer: a nice hint of viscosity, topped by light-brown foam that persists and coats the...
- Style: India Pale Ale
- ABV: 6.5%
- Int’l Bittering Units (IBUs): 64
- Serving Temperature: 45-50º F
- Suggested Glassware: Pint Glass or Mug
- Hops: Magnum, Columbus, Golding, Cascade, RI Chinook, NZ Motueka
- Malts: N. American Pale, N. American Malted Wheat, English Cara Pils, N. American Munich
- Country: United States
Cleverly named after Rhode Island’s India Point, where many exports left America bound for India, Newport Storm’s IPA pours a lightly hazy medium amber topped with plenty of persistent foam. Expect a beautiful, perfumed aroma from this brew (which is dry hopped with New Zealand Motueka and locally-grown Chinook), as notes of juicy citrus evoke orange, grapefruit, and lime, accompanied by some herbal depth and wisps of tropical fruit – all atop soft caramel malt undertones. We found a similar...
- Style: English Brown Ale
- ABV: 5.0%
- Serving Temperature: 47-52° F
- Suggested Glassware: Pint Glass or Mug
- Country: England
One would be forgiven for assuming this to be a sickly sweet dessert in a glass, but we assure you it’s really not. Instead, it’s very much in the realm of traditional English Brown Ales, which tend to offer up quite a bit of toffee character – albeit in this case somewhat amplified. This brew presents a very clear deep brown color capped by plenty of foam, which drops to a fine-bubbled collar. “Pudding” is a term the Brits use somewhat...
- Style: German Pilsener
- ABV: 4.9%
- Serving Temperature: 40-45° F
- Suggested Glassware: Pilsner Glass
- Country: Germany
It’s worth noting before we begin that it is acceptable to spell the name of this style of beer as “pilsner” or “pilsener.” The style originated in Pilsen, Czech Republic, but of course the Czechs spell Pilsen as “Plzeň,” so perhaps we should consider another spelling: “plzener.” Oh well, enough of that – on to the beer! On the pour, Wolters Pilsener presents a crystal clear, bright straw color with a fluffy bright white head. On the nose...
- Style: Porter
- ABV: 6.1%
- Int’l Bittering Units (IBUs): 33
- Serving Temperature: 47-52º F
- Suggested Glassware: Pint Glass or Mug
- Hops: N. American Pale, N. American Crystal, English Chocolate, English Cara
- Malts: German Magnum, East Kent Golding
- Country: United States
This winter seasonal pours very deep, dark brown with a persistent crop of khaki-colored foam. Look for plenty of pleasant roasty and chocolaty aromas to jump out from the glass, along with some mildly spicy and herbal, almost mint-like, overtones and a dash of black fruit. On the palate, the roastiness is there, but not over the top, while toasted bread, cocoa powder, lightly scorched caramel, and hints of leather and cigar smoke build out...
- Style: American Red Ale
- ABV: 6.5%
- Int’l Bittering Units (IBUs): 45
- Serving Temperature: 45-50º F
- Suggested Glassware: Pint Glass or Mug
- Hops: Cascade, Willamette, Columbus, Summit, Chinook
- Malts: Pale, Wheat, Crystal, Black Patent
- Country: United States
Certainly one of the better red ales that we’ve encountered recently (and a 2011 GABF Silver Medalist), Jamaica Red presents an unfiltered, deep, rich, reddish color capped by a big fluffy head that descends to a thick collar that drops plenty of lacing. Caramel malt aromas spring forth, overlaid by hop notes of sweet, candied citrus fruits. On the palate, one may have a hard time deciding if the malts or hops ultimately win out; the malt-hop...
- Style: Rum Barrel Aged Belgian-Style Ale with Spices
- ABV: 8.5%
- Serving Temperature: 54–61° F
- Suggested Glassware: Snifter, Tulip, or Bordeaux Glass
- Country: United States
Vintage 2014 is an exclusive offering, crafted by Grand Teton just for our club members; it’s not seeing distribution anywhere else. Seeing this project come together was a blast, it being one of the most involved Rare Beer Club exclusives we’ve had in a while. The Grand Teton folks went all-out on this: from the 40-year-old Colombian rum barrels, to their careful blending of the base beer, to the configuration of the final blended spice additions...
We’re so proud of our featured beers, that we list them going all the way back to 1995
No other Beer Club can claim the same. Check out what we’ve been up for the last 20+ years. We know you’ll be impressed enough to see what’s coming next month.
See past selectionsUnmatched Variety by style, brewery & country
Choose from Five different Beer Clubs offering unmatched variety by brewery,
country of origin, and beer style to suit your specific tastes.
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