Schlafly says:
“Holiday Ale is a bottle-conditioned, English-style “Old Ale” brewed at the Schlafly Tap Room on 21st Street for Culnaria, a Schnucks market. This ale is a collaborative effort by the Brewers of Schlafly Beer and our friends at Schnucks to celebrate the ongoing revival in the City of St. Louis.”
Schlafly Holiday Ale – Culinaria
Old Ale, 8% ABV
Beer Advocate Rating of B+
Sayeth the Guys:
Karl: This one is a headscratcher. Now, this particular brew is not a bad beer. It’s a good beer. It’s not a great beer. It’s not a particularly notable beer. It’s hard to classify why it’s a holiday beer, aside from the release date. It’s an example of an Old Ale, which naturally isn’t a Xmas beer, but…well…I liked it? I mean, I did! I liked it. I’d drink it again. But…that might be it.
Okay, not completely it. Ruby-brown with a minimal white head, it’s a little malty, light in flavor, medium bodied, with a decent amount of sediment hanging out in the bottle. Helpful? Not tremendously? I guess I still haven’t wrapped my head around the expectations versus the payoff. The bottle reads that it’s a great pair with meats, cheeses or desserts. I could concieveably imagine that alongside a hearty plate of ham, beans and potato casserole at a holiday dinner table that this beer really starts to pop, but on its own it failed to measure up.
Ryan: I’ll give it to you, Karl, this beer may not be that notable. I did not run down the streets of Roscoe Village shouting to all who will listen how wonderful this beer is. But it was very good. And it’s a beer I could drink more than one of. And I do mean more than one bomber.
As you can see from the photo above, this beer pours murky brown to copper in color with a some pillowy, fluffy white head. You’ll also notice in the picture below that there was a good amount of sediment in this beer. Kind of looked like fish food floating in there.
The smell was unimpressive – but inviting – sweet malts and brown sugar. The taste was also unimpressive but still good; more like an imperial brown ale than an old ale with a mix of sweet malts and light cherries. The carbonation was spot on which I think adds to this beer’s drinkability.
I happened to stumble across this at the Schlafly brewery in Maplewood the weekend of my bachelor party. This was a great find and I would happily drink it again if I could get my hands on it.
Andrew: This offering from Schalfly poured an orange, almost coppery color with just a slight head and lots of flakey sediment.
I really couldn’t pick up a lot going on in the nose, other than sweet malts and some booze.
More Stuff:
I swear…every time I try and find a beer here in Dallas and it’s not distributed here…I always come across a review of that brewery or something else in the next 20 blogs I visit! Ugh! :/
In this case, it’s once again…freakin’ Schlafly! LOL!
Ok ok…that being said though…
I love the color of the beer when put up to the light, it’s shines through just right for this type of seasonal ale.
How was the “Christmas spice”? I typically can’t stand beers that are over powered by the spices used. Was it over powering or more mild?
Ilya
There actually wasn’t much “Christmas spice,” to it. I think it was more of a holiday beer in the sense that old ale’s are good cold weather beers…warming alcohol with a malty backbone.
It’s too bad you can’t get Schlafly down in TX. They do some pretty awesome beers. We’re actually sitting on 3 year verticals of their barrel aged barley wine and imperial stout.