It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: The Last Four Beers

I've been slacking on posting over the last few days, but rest assured, I haven't been slacking on drinking holiday beers!  Here are the last four beers from my advent calendar.

Beer #2 was from one of the Chicago suburbs' many great breweries:  Phase Three in Lake Zurich.  They're probably most well-known for their IPAs -- which I don't go for -- but they also make fantastic dark beers.  Their contribution to the advent calendar was called Run Run, which is a gingerbread porter.  It was on the lighter side of porters, which is fine with me.  I thought this one was a little bit of a miss.  It was good, but kind of too heavy on the cream or lactose.

Name:  Run Run Gingerbread Porter

Brewery:  Phase Three Brewing Company

Location:  Lake Zurich, IL

ABV:  6.5%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You need a beer to drink before you float to a Dead cover band show.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  4

Beer #4 was, unfortunately, an IPA.  It was bound to happen.  Old Irving Brewing is a great local brewery whose Krampus barrel-aged stout series is a personal holiday favorite each year.  This one was Wytchwood, an IPA with three types of hops and spruce, which I suppose is what qualifies it as a holiday beer.  It's most redeeming quality was that the ABV is 6.66%.

Name:  Wytchwood

Brewery:  Old Irving Brewing Company

Location:  Chicago, IL

ABV:  6.66%

IBU:  55

Good for drinking if:  You want to use hops to wash away your optimism that your men's national soccer team had a chance against the Dutch.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  3.25

Last night's selection was from another local brewery, Forbidden Root.  They sometimes do some funky things, and this one is called Gingerbread Wheat, but it's described as a "bock beer with ginger, vanilla beans, and spices."  At 7.5%, it packed a nice punch, but it didn't taste that heavy.  All in all, pretty solid.

Name:  Gingerbread Wheat

Brewery:  Forbidden Root Brewing Company

Location:  Chicago, IL

ABV:  7.5%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You want to drink your graham crackers.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  4

Tonight's beer was from Mikerphone Brewing, another suburban gem.  They also like to do some weird shit, and it usually works.  This one was called Make My Wish Come True, and it's a wheat beer with cranberry and cinnamon that I think was made especially for the Beer On The Wall advent calendar, as Beer On The Wall's logo is on the label (not on the part in the photo above).  This was much more tart than I was expecting, and I'm not a huge fan of sours.

Name:  Make My Wish Come True

Brewery:  Mikerphone Brewing Company

Location:  Elk Grove Village, IL

ABV:  4.5%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You're looking for something to make you pucker after picking up your family from the airport.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  3.5