For those who have been to fee the beer types obtainable in every season, you’d have a tricky time beating the alternatives launched in fall and winter.
Whereas the hotter months are dominated by IPAs, pale ales, lagers, pilsners, wheat beers, and different lighter brews crafted for his or her refreshing, easy-drinking nature, the winter is a time to get maltier, bolder, and up the alcohol content material in addition to the flavour.
Autumn and winter are the seasons of brown ales, stouts, porters, and potent, warming winter seasonals. Not solely are there sure, darker, hotter beers scattered all through the colder months however there are additionally limited-release, yearly choices that many beer drinkers look ahead to. Probably the most eagerly anticipated fall/winter beer releases is Tröegs Mad Elf.
First launched in 2002, Tröegs Mad Elf Ale is, within the easiest phrases, a vacation ale flavored with cherries and honey. Nevertheless it’s a lot greater than that. Launched each winter for greater than twenty years, this iconic providing is adorned with a mischievous-looking elf. One take a look at the bottle or can and you’ve got a fairly good concept of what you’re about to get into.
“It’s a beer that’s change into synonymous with the season,” co-founder Chris Trogner says. “We prefer to say that it’s not the vacations till you’ve had your first Mad Elf.”
Brewed with chocolate malt, Munich malt, Pilsner malt, and spicy Belgian yeast, it will get its naughty taste from the addition of candy and tart cherries together with Bing, Lambert, Van, Royal Ann, and Montmorency. Pennsylvania honey provides further sweetness to this beloved brew. And it’s not only a contact of honey both. Tröegs sources 25,000 kilos of native wildflower honey from The Comfortable Beekeeper in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
The result’s a tart, candy, fruity, complicated beer with notes of cinnamon sugar, clove, allspices, and different light, warming spices. All in all, it tastes like the vacations in a pint glass.
“Mad Elf captures so many issues in regards to the holidays for therefore many individuals,” Trogner says. “And never simply beer lovers. Lots of people who sometimes don’t drink beer have a particular reference to Mad Elf.”
And whereas Tröegs Mad Elf is a vacation favourite, you don’t have to attend till December to drink it. It’s already obtainable in 12-ounce bottles, cans, and on faucet wherever Tröegs beers are discovered. Seize a sixer or order a draft. There’s no higher approach to get began than moving into the vacation spirit early.
To study extra about Mad Elf, together with its origins and brewing course of, please go to the Tröegs weblog.
