{"id":59,"date":"2013-12-21T18:48:33","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T18:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/?p=59"},"modified":"2013-12-21T18:48:33","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T18:48:33","slug":"beer-bracket-thirsty-dog-advances-to-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/?p=59","title":{"rendered":"Beer Bracket: Thirsty Dog Advances to Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh and I held the first semifinal match blind, but short of putting the beers themselves in opaque glasses and closing our eyes while we drank them, it was hard to call this a blind tasting while viewing the two contenders – Thirsty Dog’s 12 Dogs of Christmas <\/strong>and Dark Horse’s 4 <\/strong>Elf \u00a0<\/strong>– since the 4Elf is so much darker. 12 Dogs took this round 17 to 16.5.\u00a0 Our tasting notes are below if you’re interested.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

For more on Christmas Ales, check out this post by Jon Katz over at Food Republic<\/a>.\u00a0 He gives Anchor a nod, so we will see if it manages to take down Great Lakes.\u00a0 I might have put my thumb down on the scales in favor of Anchor Steam, after buying a magnum of it at Barrel and Bottle at the North Market<\/a>.\u00a0 (I have bottles for the tasting, but we’re going to need a big group to get through the large format bottle!)<\/p>\n

\"\"

An Anchor Christmas Ad from 2008, to give you a sense of scale.<\/p><\/div>\n

Semi-Final Notes: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
12 Dogs of Christmas<\/strong><\/div>\n
Very clear copper color with an off-white head.<\/div>\n
Smells of ginger, cinnamon, and honey. \u00a0Ginger stands out, but not apart. \u00a0Very much what we expect in a Christmas Ale.<\/div>\n
Spices up front and center. \u00a0Again mostly ginger and cinnamon. \u00a0Sweet and malty early on, but quickly gets bitter. \u00a0Long finish, spicy and bitter but not entirely dry. \u00a0As it warms, the malt gets more intense.<\/div>\n
Medium-full body, medium carbonation. \u00a0Slightly warming.<\/div>\n
Very much in the Great Lakes Christmas Ale mold, but maltier. \u00a0Nicely done.<\/div>\n
J: 8.5\/10 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong>E: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dark Horse – 4 Elf<\/strong><\/div>\n
Dark brown and opaque, with a tan head.<\/div>\n
Anise and grape (raisin?) in the nose, along with chocolate and some other spicing. \u00a0Darker-smelling than typical. \u00a0As it warms, the chocolate comes out much more strongly, and Erin gets a little coconut.<\/div>\n
Significantly more roastiness and chocolate on the taste. \u00a0Still highly spiced, though.<\/div>\n
Medium body, medium carbonation. \u00a0I get a distinct alcoholic warming as it goes down.<\/div>\n
A different take on the style, but nicely done. \u00a0This match-up is a lot more difficult than I would have expected.<\/div>\n
J: 8\/10 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 E:8.5\/10<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josh and I held the first semifinal match blind, but short of putting the beers themselves in opaque glasses and closing our eyes while we drank them, it was hard to call this a blind tasting while viewing the two contenders – Thirsty Dog’s 12 Dogs of Christmas and Dark Horse’s 4 Elf \u00a0– since … 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-59","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\/59","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=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/60"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.movesforbrews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}