{"id":55,"date":"2013-12-19T22:06:32","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T22:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/?p=55"},"modified":"2013-12-19T22:06:32","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T22:06:32","slug":"beer-bracket-c-town-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/?p=55","title":{"rendered":"Beer Bracket: C-Town Showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

This last bracket was one of the toughest of all.\u00a0 A venerable contender – Great Lakes Christmas Ale – goes up against a hometown favorite – Columbus Brewing Company’s Winter Warmer.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a><\/p>\n

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Great Lakes Brewing Company – Cleveland, OH – Christmas Ale<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Copper-colored and very clear, with a small, off-white head.<\/div>\n
Ginger and cinnamon in the nose, maybe some honey. \u00a0All quite restrained, though. \u00a0Otherwise, there’s some caramel maltiness and maybe a touch of chocolate that comes out as the beer warms.<\/div>\n
Similar taste to the smell, with more spice coming through. \u00a0Moderate sweetness early, but ending nice and dry. \u00a0Nice maltiness<\/div>\n
Medium-bodied, with medium or medium-light carbonation. \u00a0No astringency. \u00a0Lightly warming. \u00a0Very drinkable.<\/div>\n
Fantastic beer.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
[Erin’s Note: I think we need to do future rounds blind.\u00a0 This beer has long been a favorite of Josh’s.\u00a0 When we lived out of state, his mom saved him Christmas Ale for when we came for holiday visits.\u00a0 I agree this is a fantastic beer for the style, but I’m not sure either of us can be impartial about it.\u00a0 Impartiality wasn’t a ground rule for the tournament, but it would be good to work toward it for future rounds.]<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
J: 9\/10 \u00a0E: 8\/10<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Columbus Brewing Company – Columbus, OH -Winter Warmer<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Copper-colored, somewhat cloudy, with a small, off-white head. \u00a0Very similar in color to the Great Lakes, though cloudier.<\/div>\n
Moderately strong Christmas spice in the nose. \u00a0Smells like cinnamon-spice cookies–mmmm. \u00a0Cinnamon stands out the most–a touch too much, for Josh’s taste–with maybe some nutmeg and ginger as well? \u00a0The ginger comes out more as the beer warms. \u00a0The spices are strong enough to crowd out most of the malt.<\/div>\n
Stronger spicing in the mouth than the Great Lakes. \u00a0Again, more cinnamon-focused. \u00a0Fairly restrained for a Christmas ale. \u00a0Moderate sweetness, but moderate bitterness too. \u00a0The finish dries out somewhat but not entirely, though either hops or spices seem to add some late bitterness that the Great Lakes doesn’t have.<\/div>\n
Medium body, with somewhat higher than medium carbonation. \u00a0No astringency. \u00a0Lightly warming.<\/div>\n
All in all, a very nice Christmas ale. \u00a0I suspect this would have won at least one of the other brackets. \u00a0Unfortunately, it’s got some stiff competition here, and this one isn’t quite as polished as as GLBC. \u00a0The flavors don’t meld quite as well, it’s rather cloudy, and I’d like a slightly drier finish. \u00a0Ultimately, these are just quibbles. \u00a0Nice job, CBC.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
J: 8\/10 \u00a0E: 8\/10<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Great Lakes wins by a nose!\u00a0 Or maybe it was appearance?<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Our goal is to run the semi-finals over the weekend and take a few bottles of the finalists to the family Christmas party and get votes for the winner, so I’m keeping the two remaining Ohio beers in separate contests and stacking up the more established breweries against each other.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n
The semi-finalists will be:<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
Thirsty Dog 12 Dogs of Christmas v. Dark Horse 4 Elf<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n

Great Lakes Christmas Ale v. Anchor Brewing Our Special Ale<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This last bracket was one of the toughest of all.\u00a0 A venerable contender – Great Lakes Christmas Ale – goes up against a hometown favorite – Columbus Brewing Company’s Winter Warmer. Great Lakes Brewing Company – Cleveland, OH – Christmas Ale Copper-colored and very clear, with a small, off-white head. Ginger and cinnamon in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fermentation-friday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}