Goose Island Christmas Ale 2012

Brewed By: Goose Island Beer Company (owned by AB InBev) in Chicago, Illinois

Purchased: 12oz bottle bought at Evolution Wine & Spirits in Chicago, Illinois; 2012

Style/ABV: American Brown Ale, 7.3%

Reported IBUs: ?

Last year I reviewed the 2011 Goose Island Christmas Ale, and it was lovely. So I figure I'll give my thoughts on this year's Christmas Ale...plus, I need to clean my palate from that nasty Blue Lady. 

Goose Island is a Chicago-based brewery that began as a brewpub on Clybourn, which opened on May 1988. The actual brewery opened on 1995, and is located on the Southwest side of Chicago. The second brewpub, located in Wrigleyville by the Chicago Cubs, was opened in 1999. On March 28, 2011, Goose Island sold 58% of the brewery to Anheuser-Busch. The remaining 42% of the brewery is supposed to be acquired by A-B InBev in the future, and there has been much discussion about the brewery's takeover. On November 16th, founder and CEO, John Hall, announced he would be leaving Goose Island. On January 1st, 2012, Anheuser-Busch "veteran" Andy Goeler will take over Goose Island. At this point, it's hard to even call Goose Island "craft beer," let alone Chicago's local beer treasure. It's a damn shame, but what can you do? Oh yeah, you can drink Half Acre, Pipeworks, Revolution, and Two Brothers.

This year's Christmas Ale is slightly different than last year's. For starters, the alcohol has increased from 6.2% to 7.3%. This beer is brewed with Pale, Munich, and Caramel malts, and the hops "change from year to year," and are not listed. As the hops are not listed, the IBUs are missing as well. The website says you can cellar this beer for 180 days (shenanigans?), and this is a winter seasonal available between November and December. With that said, let's glass this up and see how it holds up.

AB-InBev Christmas Ale 2012

This beer pours a dark brown/purple color, with a finger of brown, bready head. When held to bright light, the beer has a reddish/brown color, is murky, possibly unfiltered, and you cannot see through it. There is some lacing from where the head pulled away, and there is some head hanging around. Not bad.

The aroma on this is really nice, with big raisins, bready malts, some rum, some figs....this is more malty than I remember it being. Last year's beer had more pine and pine nut, this year's beer is really big on the malts. I'm getting a Doppelbock-esque Twizzler/plum note, and maybe a hint of smoke/meat. 

You do get some really nice pine, pine nut, and hop kick in the taste. I'm not sure why I wasn't pulling out the hops on the nose. There's also some thickness about this beer, and it's quite malty with big bready malts, figs/raisins, cake, and rum-soaked bread, and a toasty thing going on. Big pine nuts and walnuts in the taste here; maybe a hint of maple syrup; elusive spices. The taste is a bit different than the nose.

This beer feels thicker than last year's, but it still rocks that big nutty taste profile, balanced by some nice piney hops. This is complex but balanced for the style, has good palate depth, and good drinkability for 7.3% ABV. This is approaching "winter warmer," or "sipping" beer. Mouthfeel is medium-full to full. Up front are some big sweet malts, nuttiness, sugars; this rolls into pine, pine nuts, hops; the back end is lingering pine nuts and pine, and a slightly dry finish. There's some maple, bread, rum, and toast that come and go. There's also some elusive spices; maybe brown sugar? 

Rating: Above-Average

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this beer. I called the 2011 a light Divine Brew; I think I really liked the prominent pine nut thing going on in the 2011 version. This year's beer is a little maltier, heavier, and it sort of reminds me of a Barleywine lite. There's a nice maple syrup thing in here, along with a sutble rum/brown sugar spice. And like last year's, there are some nice pine nuts and walnut flavors in this. I would pair this with honey ham, turkey, pecan pie, or even candied yams. As usual...this is solid stuff, and the 2012 version is just a bit warmer, so you can drink this on a cold night.