Avery Brewing Company - White Rascal

For the First Beer of Christmas, someone devilishly naughty made it onto Santa's nice list.

Avery Brewing
White Rascal

On their third visit to the Twelve Beers in five years, Avery Brewing's Belgian style white ale is a change of pace from 2013's Old Jubilation, and English Olde Ale, and 2011's Hog Heaven, a barley wine with IPA tendencies.

Pouring fills the glass with a hazy, straw colored beer with a thin cap of foam. There's very little lacing and the head dissipated quickly, leaving small swirls of bubbles on top and around the edge where the beer meets the glass.

The aroma is full of fresh yeast with lemon zest, coriander, and a little bit of freshly cracked peppercorn. The smell reminds me of fresh hay in the barn.

The carbonation is lightly crisp with a zip of small, tight bubbles across the tongue.  There's orange and lemon citrus flavors along with a soft zing of spice - pepper, coriander, and ginger - with a light yeasty finish.

The light body and crisp finish makes it extremely refreshing and sessionable. I'm kind of wishing it was summer right now so I could sit out in the back yard with this. But then I'd have to mow (or, rather, pay the neighbor kid to mow,) so I guess I'll just sit here in the house and drink it with the heater running. This will definitely be on my list for this coming summer.

Stats
Brewer: Avery Brewing Company
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Website: http://www.averybrewing.com
Style: Witbier
Alcohol Content: 5.60% ABV
Interesting Note: White Rascal is an unfiltered beer. So yes, that stuff in the bottom of the can is live yeast. Pour out most of the can, give it a good swirl, and then pour the rest into the glass. Brewer's yeast is a good source of B-complex vitamins but it does not contain B-12 (per the University of Maryland Medical Center: http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/brewers-yeast.) There appear to be all kinds of health benefits, but beware of the side effects. Drink too much and you might be a bit gassy. Not that it's ever happened to me. I'm just sayin' ...

Boston Beer Company - Samuel Adams White Christmas

For the Seventh Beer of Christmas, we had a repeat of Christmas Day ... a white Christmas! OK, at least it was a repeat of the weather we had in Lubbock.

Boston Beer Company (aka, Sam Adams) is a regular brewer in The Twelve Beers of Christmas.  But this time we remembered not to review the Winter Lager again as we did in 2010 and 2011.  Oops.  :)

Walking through Sam's Club back around Thanksgiving, I ran across a case of Samuel Adams Winter Classics.  Along with the flagship Boston Lager, five other delicious varieties are packed into that box.  The White Christmas is new to the Sam Adams line up.

The glass filled with a slightly hazy but deep gold beer that formed a small white head.  The haze is common to wheat beers (which witbier is a variety of).  The head quickly dissipated to a light ring.

The scent is all fruit and spice.   Bananas and grapefruit mixed with cinnamon, pepper, and big dose of coriander.   The carbonation is aggressive and crisp, leaving a tingle on the tongue and a medium-bodied mouthful.

I know I say this sort of thing a lot, but I really enjoyed this beer.  The best thing is that I have three more in the refrigerator along with some Sam Adams Chocolate Bock, Holiday Porter, Old Fezziwig Ale, and, yes, Winter Lager.  Happy New Year to me and the rest of the guys!

Aaron & Brandon tasted strong nutmeg with a hint of citrus.  But they didn't feel there was any cinnamon in the flavor.

Rating:

Aaron: 7
Brandon: 7
Wyatt: (out partying for New Years)
Tracy: 8

Stats
Brewer: Boston Beer Company
Location: Boston, MA
Website: http://www.SamuelAdams.com
Style: Witbier
Alcohol Content: 5.8% ABV
Interesting Note: Founder Jim Koch created Samuel Adams Boston Lager grew from a 110 year old Koch family recipe.