A Couple of Beers on a Friday

Last Friday I had a couple of interesting beers but haven't been able to talk about them quite yet.  Between the Three Floyds stuff, catching up on some other posts and Stina's birthday I've just had other things to talk about than these two.  Now's the time though.  I know, you're very excited.  I'm glad.

The first one I opened was a Great Lakes Christmas Ale.  My brother Dan gave me this for Hanukkah and I was excited because I had heard it was quite good.  I hadn't seen it anywhere around me so it was nice to get a few bottles.

Starts with lots of spices in the nose.  Some ginger, some cinnamon and other similar ones.  Deliciously sweet with ginger up front.  As it warms, the body thickens slightly and the flavors meld really well.  Not quite as highly spiced as the Sly Fox Christmas but close.  Pretty tasty for a Christmas ale as it has just enough spices and the base beer was very good.  Thanks Dan!

After that I opened an older bottle, a Dieu du Ciel Equinoxe du Printemps, a maple scotch ale.  Dieu du Ciel is a brewery up in Montreal.  It sees some distribution down into the US, but the Equinoxe isn't ever available as far as I know.  Last March, I met up with my buddy from there and he had bought six four-packs from a little corner store for me.  The owner was sort of confused when he then went back into the store for more beer.  Guess people don't generally buy cases there.

At this point it is about 9 months old but it has spent a lot of that in the refrigerator so aging is minimal.  Smelled fantastic.  Sweet and malty with a hint of maple.  First sip is sweet and almost a little spicy.  Not sure where the latter flavor comes from but it works really well.  As it warms up, the maple begins to assert itself nicely.  Finishes sweet with a big maple flavor.  Very good beer and I wish I could get more of it.  The main issue is that they don't make a ton, even for their home market, so I don't think I'll get more without my buddy bringing them to me.  Ah well, plenty of other stuff out there.

Depending on whether things work out, I may be opening a bottle of Troegs Splinter Black this weekend.  Pretty excited for it too.  Drink a good beer for me this weekend!