I hope that means he liked it.

The tree went up on my shoulder, I carried it home (drawing chuckles from several people driving by), and our Christmas season officially began. We’ve been listening to Christmas music, drinking hot chocolate, and generally sickening all humbugs spying through our windows.

So it should come as no surprise that I’ve selected the “Hoppy Christmas Ale” from Belgium’s Brewery De Ranke. The beer — Père Noël (imported by Shelton Brothers) — intimates the reason for Father Christmas’ jolly cheeks and rosy nose; the label depicts Santa embracing the frothy, 7% ABV Strong Pale Ale.

How can you turn down such unbridled Christmas Cheer? I imagine him saying, “HO, ho ho — I love you man!”

De Ranke’s Père Noël poured deep gold with a frothy white head that climbed to the top of my tulip glass. As the yeast sediment splashed into the glass, Père Noël darkened to a coppery amber.

The aroma is hoppy, floral, and full of tart, juicy fruit. The yeast creates a soft aroma of brown banana peel, and the aroma isn’t very spicy at all. Underneath the fruit and floral hops is a deep, caramel-sweet malt aroma — no wonder Saint Nick is is so cozy with this brew!

Père Noël initially tastes fruity-sweet, growing hoppy as the ale slides across your tongue. The alcohol tingles pleasantly at the finish, and bitterness rushes up to create a smooth and lingering aftertaste. It’s a beer that blends bitter and sweet (naughty and nice?) with a deft hand.

I’d love to ask Santa if he’d bring me a few bottles of De Ranke’s Père Noël this Christmas, but I’m afraid that jolly old elf would drink it all before he arrives at my house — and I don’t want to be responsible for another Grandma getting run over by a reindeer.

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Pere Jacques beer is named after the Abbot who gave the brewmaster of Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Co. an unforgettable experience during a Belgian brewery tour. According to the label text, Pere Jacques finished the experience with a hearty lunch of roast duck, wild boar, and the brewery’s own ale. In honor of that tour and meal, Goose Island crafted a Dubbel with “LOADS of MALT and BELGIAN YEAST”.

My serving of Pere Jacques was bottled in early 2008; it has a 9% ABV and the label claims the beer will continue to mature until 2013 — at least it would have, if I hadn’t just opened the bottle! The 2009 version has a new label and a slightly tamer 8% ABV.

I poured the dark copper ale into a wide-mouthed chalice, producing a thin, brief layer of bubbles. Pere Jacques’s malty, fruity aroma was apparent immediately — green apples, apricots, and sweet alcohol. Mmmm . . . Anybody have some roast duck or wild boar to loan me?

I like to share how breweries depict their beers, so here’s an excerpt of the description posted to the Goose Island website:

Brewed with loads of malt and Belgian yeast, Pere Jacques is a wonderfully fruity, malty ale. Pere Jacques’ complex flavors stand shoulder to shoulder with the Belgian Dubbels enjoyed in the world’s finest beer bars. At the dining table it’s the perfect alternative to a glass of vintage port.

The taste is darkly sweet and fruity, with notes of furtive spice. Pere Jacques is teeming with grapes, apple, toffee and honey. Plums and apples linger through the aftertaste, and after a few sips the comparison to vintage port doesn’t seem to far fetched (based on the finish alone).

Pere Jacques is very tasty, fruity and sweet; the first sip had me thrilled and kept me enthralled and attentive throughout the entire glass. Still, I would have liked to see more depth to the flavor and perhaps a fuller mouthfeel, but that’s likely because I drank the beer without the accompaniment food. The scent and tastes of rich meats would balance the ale’s soft fruit — and with the taste of Goose Island’s Pere Jacques still on my palate, just thinking of roast duck has my mouth watering!

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For this IPA Monday, I’ve chosen to drink Mayflower IPA. If you’re looking for a “Pilgrim-themed” IPA to help you start off a shortened workweek, you would be hard-pressed to find a better beer. Mayflower’s India Pale Ale is 7% ABV, 69 IBU, and is brewed with four different types of hops: Nugget, Simcoe, Glacier, Amarillo.

Did you know that beer is featured prominently in the Pilgrims’ historic journey aboard the Mayflower? According to the Mayflower Brewing Company’s website . . .

“. . . beer was the staple drink on board the Mayflower. Unlike water, which quickly spoiled when stored in the hold of ships, beer contained no bacteria, and the then-recent introduction of hops made it keep longer. It was also a terrific source of carbohydrates. Men, women and children drank beer daily, and sailors aboard the Mayflower received a daily ration of a gallon.”

While searching for suitable land along Cape Cod, the Pilgrims grew weary and settled in Plymouth, due — it would seem — to dwindling supplies of beer! A quote by William Bradford’s firsthand account of the Pilgrims at Plymouth decorates the label: “We could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer.”

Upon arriving in Plymouth, the Pilgrims found sweet, fresh water — and today, that water is used to create craft beer by Mayflower Brewing Company.

The beer pours honey-amber, with a persistent off-white foam that clings tenaciously to the glass while receding. Citrus and herbal hops rise up to greet your nose with a scent that’s sweetly decorated — dabs of caramel malt and candied grapefruit.

I’m a big fan of IPAs that manage a drinkable balance between citrus hops and caramel malt. Mayflower IPA sails those sea perfectly.

Citrus bitterness splashes across the tongue before a undertow of pale malt pulls you out to deeper water — where it’s warm and caramel sweet. Soon, you’re crashing back upon the hoppy shoals and letting the sea drain away to a lingering, sticky-green hop finish.

Unlike my metaphor abuse, the beer isn’t too heavy. It has a medium mouthfeel and a pleasant warmth from the otherwise hidden alcohol.

And that reminds me — with Uncle Junior coming to the house this Thanksgiving, hiding the alcohol might be a very good idea.

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To the pile of news stories describing how “a beer a day” can improve your cholesterol, reduce kidney stones, and give you cancer, let’s add one more astounding property — it seems a beer a day can get you pregnant!

A few months ago, I paused my regular blog contributions to take a much needed breather and to focus more attention on my wife. My beer gut has been growing steadily all year, but it seems my wife’s belly has recently begun to give mine a run for its money.

Yes indeed — my wife and I will be having a baby next year! In several months, my life is certain to change dramatically. I’ll go from nursing bottles to, well, bottles and nursing. (Hmmm — guess it won’t be such a stretch afterall.)

So you can understand my shift in focus. I’ve only had two or three hours each evening to share with my wife, and spending a good portion of that time behind a computer writing about beer just seemed ridiculous — these are the final months with “just the two of us” for company. I’ve continued to photograph my beer, take notes, and “tweet” about each beer on Twitter. And despite my shift in focus, I do plan to write more about beer here on BeerADay.net as I push through and finish up my “one a day all year” project.

In the meantime, I hope you’ll join in my excitement by raising your glass high! Let’s have three cheers: Sláinte! L’Chaim! Prost!

Have you noticed the title of this post? Do you think it’s a coincidence that on the day of my big announcement, I’m drinking “Baby Tree” from Pretty Things Beer And Ale Project?

Baby Tree is a quadruple brewed “with dried plums” (prunes). I’ve enjoyed Pretty Things’ Jack D’Or, St. Botolph’s Town, and Confounded Mister Sisyphus so far this year. But I had not been able to find Baby Tree, fearing that I had missed my chance at this seasonal brew.

Fate, it seems, is a funny thing. After deciding to announce the pregnancy this weekend, I stumbled across a bottle of Baby Tree (Batch Two, July 2009).

I poured the slightly chilled bottle into a Chimay glass, lingering over the rich aroma barely a minute before temptation pulled the ale to my lips. Baby Tree is a dark, reddish brown ale. The pour whipped up a moderate, off-white head and an aroma redolent with sweet malt and dark fruit. The scent was punctuated by the smell of rum as alcohol fumes pushed through. It’s a soothing, warming scent.

According to the Pretty Things website, Baby Tree:

. . . benefits from the addition of 40lbs of dried California plums in the kettle – hopefully contributing to the overall dark-fruit character of the beer. Like Jack D’Or, no spices are added to this beer. It’s a dark, 8.6% beer . . .

The ale is somewhat light in body but heavy on taste. Baby Tree tastes of bubblegum, prunes, and dark spice. There’s the essence of pumpernickel bread in the malt, enough to form a base for this ale’s candy sugar and prune sweetness which, in turn, is held in check by the anise, pepper, and elusive spices from the yeast. Spicy yeast rumbles through the finish, warming tongue, throat, and belly with a delicious, peppery bitterness. That spice creates a wonderful friction that manages to lengthen the otherwise sweet and boozy finish.

As for the name of the beer? You can see the real “Baby Tree” in the video below, and the full story is available on the Pretty Things Beer And Ale Project website.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGUHZS8_2K0

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More on what’s been taking my focus will be posted in the next entry. But today, let’s focus on Bluegrass Brewing Company’s Bourbon Barrel Stout.

Bluegrass Brewing Company ages this stout for 60 days in barrels that once held Jefferson’s Reserve Bourbon. I lucked into this bottle through an arrangement with Twitter user @DrewDockery. I’m extremely grateful — not just to have a beer sponsored, but also to have a chance to taste beer aged in barrels from my favorite bourbon!

The beer poured dark and chocolatey, with a creamy foam the formed quickly but receded easily. My bottle emptied and speckled the bottom of a tulip glass with brown sediment, suggesting stars against the midnight pitch. The small clumps had no discernible impact on taste.

Did I expect the Bourbon Barrel Stout to taste strongly of Jefferson’s Reserve? No, but I did hope to recognize its signature flavors. One of my favorite aspects of Jefferson’s Reserve Bourbon is its dark fruit essence. That fig-like sweetness gives the bourbon character and complexity that have found a place in my bourbon-loving heart.

The stout doesn’t taste strongly of bourbon, but I’m quite pleased I didn’t get what I wished for.

Bourbon Barrel Stout has a pleasant aroma, distinct but not overwhelming. It’s a sweet smell — milk chocolate, cherry-vanilla and oak. I poured the beer at a temperature of about 50 degrees, but it took a few swirls in the tulip glass to give the scent its wings.

On the tongue, the stout presents more like a robust porter than I would have guessed. Roasted malt came across as smokey, with hints of charcoal at mid-palate. The oak and chocolate malt combine with hints of bourbon to create a sweetness with suggestions of molasses. The vanilla-fig taste I love in Jefferson Reserve flits about in the aftertaste before giving way to a delicate sweet, roasted malt finish.

Bourbon Barrel Stout feels very light in the mouth, and there’s almost no indication of the strong alcohol content. This beer has an 8% ABV rating, but nothing comes across as bold — it’s an easy going, pleasant, slightly sweet stout. If you like porters or smokey brown ales, this is the stout for you.

For more on Bourbon Barrel Stout, see the video below made by BourbonBlog.com:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Rj-1rbA6s

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