Relevant to this post, reader Thomas Strong reports spotting Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout 2009 in four-packs at Wells Discount Liquors on October 2nd.
I dunno. Do we count Brooklyn Black Chocolate as a Christmas beer, or do we wait for something more painfully obvious, that calls itself a Christmas beer?
But it beats my Oct. 10th prediction by a over a week.
8 comments:
I'd call it a winder seasonal. A Christmas beer needs to explicitly reference the holiday in some way.
I will presume you actually mean a "winter" seasonal; I doubt anyone's making a special winch beer..........
I'm already on my second 4-pack of this stuff. Kinda bummed their no longer in 6's, but whatever.
Either way, definitely not "Christmas" beer. There are plenty of imperial stouts on the retail shelves right now. Stone released their Imperial Russian Stout about a month ago and the Brooklyn Dark Chocolate stout was released about 2 weeks ago. Then there's always the Storm King from Victory and a few others.
Further info:
Brooklyn Brewery's website calls this one of two "seasonals" they carry, and is "available October through March." Their Monster Ale Barleywine is available December-March. The website also lists their "Winter Ale," albeit mysteriously released "04/09/2009" and the only other beer release date is listed as 04/23/2003, so we know they're not using "European" date form..... so they released a "winter" beer in April, go figure.
Based on an explicitly-named "Winter Ale" in Brooklyn's portfolio, I'm calling Black Chocolate NOT a "Christmas" beer. Keep looking, folks.
Flying Dog's releasing its K-9 cruiser soon and its on tap at the tasting room already, although again, 'winter' and not Christmas.
Great Lakes Brewery was pouring their Christmas Ale at the World Beer Fest in Durham this past weekend. (October 3).
Festivals aren't retail markets, David. Nor are Great Lakes beers available around here.
Not trying to win a contest, just providing info.
The original post stated "retailer's shelf OR a tap handle", and no geographic restriction was given. :-)
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