It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: First Three Beers

We made it, guys.  It's winter beer season.  Sure, some breweries try to pretend that IPAs can be winter beers, but this is the season for the dark and malty.  Like last several years, I will once again be engaging in a 24-day weight-gaining enterprise I call It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer -- a daily look at a different beers throughout December.  I again bought two beer advent calendars:  (1) the Costco German beer advent calendar, which I again just bought that because it has a bunch of great German beers that aren't generally otherwise available in the U.S., so I can drink them anytime; and (2) my main beer advent calendar, again from local beer shop Beer on the Wall.

When I picked it up at the shop a couple weeks ago, the guy behind the counter handed me an envelope that contained a list of the beers.  I slid that right back to him and explained that one of the few joys I have in life is being surprised when I take a beer out of the box in the morning to put it in the fridge.

Thanks to some other activities this weekend that prevented me from diving into my advent calendar, I didn't get started until last night, so I'm a little behind.  Fear not, I made the sacrifice of having two beers tonight, and I'll do the same tomorrow night.  With that, here are the first three beers.

The advent calendar kicked off with a good one.  Called Beary Brown, it was a brown ale with coffee, cacao, cinnamon, and vanilla by Liquid Love, a brewery in suburban Chicago that admittedly, I am not very familiar with.  But they made a great first impression!  This was a collab with Beer On the Wall just for this advent calendar, so I felt it appropriate to use the commemorative Beer On the Wall glass that came with the calendar.  The beer was the perfect winter beer, malty with some winter flavors.

Name:  Beary Brown

Brewery:  Liquid Love Brewing Company

Location:  Buffalo Grove, IL

ABV:  5.8%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You've been drinking other beers most of the day and you just need a nice night cap while watching Sunday Night Football.

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

Beer #2 was one of those damn winter IPAs, from another suburban brewery.  At least it was a hazy, so it was slightly more palatable than a standard IPA.  And both the name of the beer and the can were great, so that garnered an extra 0.25.  For those of you who are into hops, it has Citra, Idaho #7, Simcoe, and Centennial hops, which apparently gives it citrus and pine notes.

Name:  Santa Doesn't Believe In You Either

Brewery:  Hidden Hand Brewing

Location:  Naperville, IL

ABV:  6.5%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You finally have some time to do some Christmas shopping and you need something that tastes like Christmas tree orange juice.

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

Yet another suburban brewery, Riverlands out of St. Charles, provided the third beer.  It's another hoppy one, named Hoppy Grinchmas and deemed a winter IPA.  That said, as you can see, it's a red IPA, which, again, makes it more palatable than a standard IPA, as there are some more malts in there, along with the Citra, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops.

Name:  Hoppy Grinchmas

Brewery:  Riverlands Brewing Company

Location:  St. Charles, IL

ABV:  6.5%

IBU:  70

Good for drinking if:  Gordon Shumway is watching you when finally have some time to do some Christmas shopping.

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