December 17th, 2015
Day 17: Heavy Seas Yule Tide by Oliver Gray
@HeavySeasBeer @OliverJGray
To celebrate the Holiday Season, we have teamed up with beer bloggers and craft beer enthusiasts around the country to host the fifth annual beer 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 enthusiasts. We hope that you tune in every day, to hear our stories and share our holiday cheer.
Heavy Seas Yule Tide
Blogger: Oliver Gray
Blog: Literature and Libation
Website: http://literatureandlibation.com
Twitter / Facebook: T: @OliverJGray F: grayoliver
About Me: I’m a beer drinker with a writing problem
Beer: Yule Tide (Uncharted Waters Series)
Brewery: Heavy Seas Beer – Baltimore, MD
Website: http://www.hsbeer.com/
Twitter: @HeavySeasBeer
Commercial Description: Aged in Jamaican rum barrels, this year’s Gingerbread Weizen Doppelbock offers spicy clove-like notes from German weizen yeast. The hops blend harmoniously with heavy doses of Caramel and Aromatic malts. Actual gingerbread was used during the brewing process to give this special offering a subtle holiday-infused taste. A warming finish from the rum barrel aging contributes to a fully satisfying tipple. Yule Tide is sure to make you comfortable on a cold winter’s evening
Beer Details:
-Style: Dopplebock aged in rum barrels
-ABV: 9%
-IBU: 28
Why I selected the Heavy Seas Yule Tide:
I’m a big fan of Heavy Seas in general, but their “Uncharted Waters” series ranks among some of the best beer I’ve ever had. My go-to is usually Siren Noire, but come Yuletime, as the night sets in early and Christmas cheer rears its jingly, sparkly head, I prefer something a little more seasonally appropriate. Thus, Yule Tide. I’m typically not a dopplebock kind of guy, but when you add the malt sweetness to the residual saccharine of the rum barrels, you get a perfect cold, dark day beer. It’s more like drinking a spirit than a beer at times, with a lot of subtle, surprising flavors (gingerbread!) hiding below a pretty traditional aroma and appearance.
What is Oliver Looking Forward to?
A group of bloggers/beer guys in the NJ/PA/DC/MD/VA region do a yearly pilgrimage to the Dogfish Head pub in Rehoboth, mostly to please the dark gods of weird beer and ensure Spring returns to the Earth again. It’s the only thing keeping us from 500 million years of total darkness, so I guess I’ll probably go again this year.
What would you pair this beer with?
A large blanket, a purring cat, a crackling fireplace, and as many days of not having to go into the office as your boss will allow.
Oh. You meant food. Right.
Usual Christmas dark fruit and other fare. Dried dates, figs, cherries, potentially walnuts if you’re into that kind of thing. It’d probably go well with some pungent cheese, too, to cut through the sweetness and counterbalance it with some salt. Stilton bleu, if I had to make a suggestion.
But I’d probably drink it by itself, if I’m being honest. It’s complex enough to carry plenty of weight without any assistance.
About Literature and Libation
I’m a beer drinker with a writing problem. I find beer (and maybe moreso brewing) a nearly inexhaustible font of ideas. Beyond the glass, it’s a beautiful landscape of patchwork topics that gives you room, as a writer, to explore nearly anything you can imagine from agricultural science to roots of human psychology. I also have a tendency to hyperbolize and overwrite. I apologize for nothing. visit http://literatureandlibation.com for more information.
About Heavy Seas Beer:
Heavy Seas is about adventure, challenge, risk taking, rebellion, and an active lifestyle. Symbolizing a certain swagger, our pirate logo is the perfect metaphor and the ocean has always been one of man’s greatest challenges and most inspiring adventures. We love people who have the courage and character to challenge what life has to offer, aware of the risks, and who embrace it anyway. We make beers to celebrate both the people and their adventures. It’s an attitude, a lifestyle and who we are.
For more information, please visit http://www.hsbeer.com/.