December 3rd, 2014
31 Beers of December – Day 3: Begyle Christmas Ale
@jlj_love & @thirstynobeard @begylebrewing
To celebrate the Holiday Season, we have teamed up with beer bloggers and craft beer enthusiasts around the country to host the fourth annual beer bloggers advent calendar. This is the season of sharing and we intend to share our love of beer with you.
During the 31 days of December, we will be sharing our favorite regional/winter seasonals/holiday beers with the help from our fellow beer bloggers. We hope that you tune in every day, to hear our stories and share our holiday cheer.
Begyle Christmas Ale
Blogger: Jenny & Ryan Jansen
Blog Name: 2Beerguys.com
Twitter/Facebook/Untappd: @jlj_love & @thirstynobeard / 2beerguys / rkjansen
Beer: Begyle Christmas Ale
Brewery: Begyle Brewing, Chicago, IL
Beer Details:
-Style: Herbed / Spice Beer
-ABV: 7
-IBUs: unknown
Commercial Description
Our Christmas Ale is a spiced beer featuring bay leaves, cinnamon, and sassafras. The spices are rounded out by a blend of European style malts and an American ale yeast. Best served along side family and friends, this beer reminds us, that it is a wonderful life.
Flavor/Color Profile:
It pours with a dark amber color and a tan head. The nose presents with spices that ring of cinnamon over a muted caramel. The lively carbonation did not attenuate quickly. A combination of spices battled over our tastebuds as we sipped this beautiful beer but none overpowered the others.
Why I selected the Begyle Christmas:
Jen and I had the opportunity to stop in at Begyle Brewing while we were visiting our friends Oliver and Will in Chicago to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Oliver and Will have a share in the CSB program that Begyle offers. What’s a CSB you say? A CSB is a Community Supported Brewery and much like Community Supported Agriculture, patrons can buy beer shares as opposed to crop shares. CSB members’ shares are full growlers as opposed to produce or meat from CSAs.
Upon entering Begyle’s tap room, Jen and I were immediately enamored with Begyle’s counter-pressure growler filler sitting behind the bar. The brewery had great beer and a home-y vibe. Since the Christmas Ale had just been released a few days beforehand and wasn’t sold out; we decided to bring a piece of Chicago home with us to blog about in our 31 Beers of December post.
-Cheers
Jen & Ryan
About the 2Beerguys.com:
Founded in 2006, 2Beerguys.com has been devoted to spreading their passion of the craft beer world. Originating primarily as craft beer reviewers, they have molded their organization into premier craft beer educators and ambassadors for craft beer industry. Their passion has taken them on the wild ride of home brewing and beer education. 2Beerguys.com believes that you deserve a good beer, visit http://www.2beerguys.com for more information.
About Begyle Brewing Company:
Begyle Brewing is a community supported brewery located in Chicago, IL. We’ll borrow principles from community supported agriculture, offering growler subscriptions to our customers (“CSB”). We really like growlers – they’re portable, reusable and promote sharing! Our counter-pressure growler filler will allow us to offer an extension on the usual growler experience. In order to ensure a proper growler fill, a growler is often overfilled to make sure no oxygen is left inside (oxygen makes good beer taste funny!). This filling method leads to beer loss, and beer lost is beer shrinkage. We want to eliminate wasted beer (oh, the humanity!) and increase the shelf life of our growlers fills.
Begyle Brewing consists of Brendan Blume, Matt Ritchey and Kevin Cary. Kevin and Matt both hail from Fenton, a small town outside of Flint, MI. Having both moved to Chicago after college, they became roommates and quickly began brewing together. Matt eventually bought all the textbooks and literature he could find and has been working to perfect his craft ever since. Brendan Blume was born and raised in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago. While attending the University of Dayton, Brendan and his brother started Blume Brothers Pedicab. After graduation, Brendan helped start an organic farm in Ohio and build their CSA membership. When he returned to Chicago he met Kevin through his pedicab business. One thing led to another and an idea was born to start a brewery, and to be one of the first breweries based on a CSA model.