12 Beers of Christmas: Bruery 4 Calling Birds

The Bruery 4 Calling Birds

The one thing I made sure to point out last night in my writeup on Anchor's Our Special Ale was that I really enjoy how they've made it an annual tradition, changing the recipe each year. Along with Cigar City, The Bruery has established itself as one of the best craft breweries in the country. Just as I'm sharing 12 beers of Christmas this year, The Bruery started a 12 Years of Christmas tradition back in 2008 with Partridge in a Pear Tree. This line, as you can imagine, has also become a favorite in the cellars of many beer drinkers. This year, they put out 4 Calling Birds, a spiced strong dark ale. They've loosely based their recipes in the past on the name, using turtle candy and "French" (french oak), so they used a lot of poultry seasoning in this beer. I'm joking but there's probably some zany brewer out there considering this for a moment. Anyway, this beer basically just follows the Christmas beer formula again: strong, dark, sweet and spicy. Very malty and sugary. Toasted bread, molasses and dark fruit in the taste. It would be interesting to see how this beer mellows out over time.

Overall Rating: B (8 Maids-a-Milking)