Day 18 of the Advent-ure Calendar
Day 18: Brasserie Thiriez Christmas Beer
There isn’t much on the brewery’s website about this beer but one line struck a chord with us “a special beer is created each year, according to the inspiration of the master brewer.” This makes it seem like the recipe changes every year. There are a lot of breweries who work with a new Christmas recipe each year and some of them admit to it and others don’t. We enjoyed this beer at a special event, Wrestlemezia 2015, Mez’s surprise birthday party so we had some surprise guests review the beer as well.
REFLECTIONS
Beard & Broad
Beard: This smelled awesome. Hints of orange peel and some spice and some sourness. The taste was disappointing though. Muted sourness, muted esters, a bit of overpowering bitterness from the orange peel. Not sure if it’s the style or the oldness. If the flavors were a bit more pronounced (besides the orange peel) this beer may have been amazing.
Broad: I was very anxious to try this because it looks like a good ol’ fashioned Christmas beer. This was very underwhelming. It was bland, flat, had a slight malt flavor. I could barely taste the Christmas spices. I’m disappointed because it smelled like a light, delicious almost citrus Christmas.
Adam & Alex
Adam: I’m struggling to remember this beer after one night which doesn’t speak well for the beer itself. I think I remember it smelling promising (citrus?) but falling completely flat and tasting malty. Another disappointing non northeast Ohio “Christmas beer”
Alex: This tasted very bland to me as well. Did not get a lot of flavor. Very blah.
Mez & Sam
Mez: It wasn’t a bad beer but it wasnt a memorable beer either. It had a dry finish that kept it drinable but nothing made me want to drink it.
Sam: The sharing beer was bland. It wasn’t totally bad but I was expecting something stronger tasting
GUEST COMMENTATORS
Christa: My palette is limited. I know what I like and what I don’t. I wouldn’t have picked this up because I am extremely picky but considering all that, this beer wasn’t terrible. It tasted flat and smelled a bit odd, stale. I didn’t mind the initial taste, you get the flavors promised, but the aftertaste is awful. Like a bad first date, seemed like everything you were promised and then no, douchebucket. But, if you like that sort of thing, all for you.
Scott: Tastes like the illegitimate child of la fin du monde and a sour beer.
Tony: Tastes like a watered down brown ale, light malt flavor, overall it felt “empty” like not much to it, not a lot of flavor
Matt: Even for someone who isn’t a big beer drinker it was a little dull. I was hoping for a bit more flavor. I could taste a hint of orange/citrus which was kind of nice, but a little more of a full flavor was needed.