It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: Dark Horse Tres Blueberry Stout and Summit Winter Ale

Dark Horse Tres Blueberry Stout

Last night, I started my annual quest to drink the 12 Beers of Christmas at Rocks.  I was a little irked that there were a four or five hoppy options on the list, but the nice thing about the 12 Beers of Christmas is that the menu turns over constantly, so hopefully next time I'm there, the tide will have turned malty.

Anywho, one of the non-hoppy beers on the list was Dark Horse's Tres Blueberry Stout, which is part of their winter stout series, which is excellent.  As the name of the beer indicates, Tres is a blueberry stout, but the blueberry isn't overpowering.  It actually works quite well with the stout.

Name:  Tres Blueberry Stout
Brewery:  Dark Horse Brewery
Location:  Marshall, Michigan
ABV: 7.5%
IBU:  20
Good for drinking if:  you're at a bar that's across the street from an Iowa bar during the Big Ten Championship game, so there are a ton of spillover Iowa fans, and Iowa loses in the last minute to Michigan State, so you decide to go with a beer from Michigan that is as close to combining stout and blueberry pancakes as you will ever come

Rating (out of 5 stars):  4.5 stars

Summit Winter Ale

This one was actually a holdover from last year, but it didn't appear to lose any flavor sitting in my fridge.  Summit's Winter Ale is a pretty standard winter ale.  It's malty, caramely (but not too sweet), and even a little nutty.  Overall, it's very good and very drinkable.  This is the kind of winter ale you can drink all night without worrying about waking up the next morning wearing nothing but a lampshade on your head, completely shorn, head to toe.  Again.

Name:  Winter Ale
Brewery:  Summit Brewing Company
Location:  St. Paul, Minnesota
ABV: 6.2%
IBU:  40
Good for drinking if:  you feel like sitting down on your couch on a Sunday night to watch some football, so you crack open a beer and pour it into a pint glass, and then your wife tells you that you need to go to that goddamned grocery store because "we don't have any string cheese, juice boxes, or bananas," as if your kids couldn't live a day without any of those, so you go to the grocery store, and when you get back, you sit on your couch and watch some football, while drinking a good winter beer

Rating (out of 5 stars):  4.5 stars