Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Mad Elf & Seriously Bad Elf


Tröegs Mad Elf

Belgian Strong Dark Ale 11.00% ABV

Seriously Bad Elf

English Strong Ale 9.00% ABV

The Elves are happily on leave from Santa’s workshop and have come out to play. I know the cuz was having a hard time finding these in Conn. so when I saw them on the menu at Asgard Irish Pub in Cambridge, very cool place by the way www.classicirish.com – I had to order them and check them out. Cead Mile Faite!

I have never had either of these brews before and I made the amateur mistake of trying them back to back – didn’t check the ABV until after, opps.

They both get a B+ in my book and didn’t taste at all like I thought they would. I was expecting two heavy, winter beers but instead I got something much different. I consider these both to be dessert beers. They were sweet – almost cider-like.

I think that is the one thing I have learned through my winter beer experimenting. Winter beer does not always mean heavy, hoppy lagers and stouts. A lot of these beers are crisp and have cranberry, honey, citrus, and apple flavors running through them, using the fruits of the holiday. Winter is actually a great "girly-drinking" season. Who knew?
These two beers are especially thin and go down easy, use caution. Ok, here is the run down according to me:

Mad Elf – Reminded me of a Bellini -- you know, the fancy champagne drinks with fruit juice? Yes, I just compared beer to champagne. It had really strong flavors of cherries, honey and chocolate malt. It was fizzy, sweet, delicious and STRONG.

Seriously Bad Elf – This beer was both sweet and sour. Vanilla smacks you right in the face and I felt like I was biting into a granny smith apple. It tasted more like a liqueur than a beer. My trustworthy sidekicks who were stealing sips compared it to a kicked-up Magners.

There is also Insanely Bad Elf, Very Bad Elf and just plain Bad Elf. Give em’ a try and post your findings here.

Here is a little bit of trivia for you regarding Seriously Bad Elf, (Tony maybe this is why you were having a hard time finding it in Conn.): “State officials in Connecticut want to ban the holiday beer because they worry the label (see photo above) might entice children to drink beer, sparking a possible constitutional battle and virtually guaranteeing the beer will sell out.”
– hmm…

ALSO: For a chuckle check out this clip of two knuckle-heads who clearly had too many elves and a camera on hand. http://vodpod.com/watch/1243579-12-beers-of-christmas-9-very-bad-elf

Cheers everyone!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

+1 on the Insanely Bad Elf. More beery flavor (sans champagne).