It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: Church Street Rudolph's Red

Beer #2 is from suburban Itasca's Church Street, and it was brewed in collaboration with the proprietor of this lovely advent calendar, Beer on the Wall.  I assume that means it was made especially for the advent calendar, particularly because I was only the 8th person on Untappd to ever check it in.  Anywho, this one's a red ale called Rudolph's Red, and it's pretty damn good -- malty, caramelly, and not too heavy at 5.3%.  Not enough breweries make red ales anymore, which is too bad because it's really a great style of beer.  Hopefully Church Street keeps making it.

Name:  Rudolph's Red

Brewery:  Church Street Brewing Company

Location:  Itasca, IL

ABV:  5.3%

IBU:  37

Good for drinking if:  You need a nice malty beer after once again shuttling children to and from sports practices.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  4.25

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: Roaring Table Jubilation

December certainly snuck up on us, didn't it?  Seems like just four days ago, I was drinking Underberg in a vain attempt to settle my engorged stomach after eating way too much turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, shrimp, cheese, cured meats, crackers, olives, and pie.  And now I have to start drinking a beer every night until Santa comes to visit.

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 once again bought bought my beer advent calendar from local beer shop Beer on the Wall.  I'll also once again take this opportunity to express my disappointment that Costco once again didn't have its German beer advent calendar, which I also usually buy just to have unique German beers throughout the year.  But here's a shot of this year's calendar.  It's noticeably shorter than the last few years, which leads me to believe it's all cans -- but I dare not peek! Disregard the bunched up rug in the background.  My brain-injured dog likes to spite pee in our house when we have the gall to leave him alone for more than two minutes, so what you're seeing is a hopefully clean, but wet, portion of the rug propped up to dry.  It truly is the little things that drive you insane.

The advent calendar began this evening with a selection from north suburban Lake Zurich's Roaring Table.  The beer is called Jubilation, and the can touts it as a "Winter India Pale Ale."  It features five varieties of hops that all start with "c."  We have Cascade, Cashmere, Centennial, Chinook, and Columbus hops.  I'd love to tell you what any of that means, but you know damn well I don't like hoppy beers.  And this one is hoppy.  I suppose the "winter" portion of it comes from the fact that it's a little bit darker than the normal IPA.  While I'm not a fan, at least I was able to drink it out of the commemorative Beer On the Wall glass that came with the calendar.

Name:  Jubilation

Brewery:  Roaring Table Brewing Company

Location:  Lake Zurich, IL

ABV:  6.8%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You feel like drinking a pine tree.

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