Holiday Season Beer Experiences

It was a whirlwind holiday season, with a road trip to Salt Lake City for Christmas with my wife's side of the family and an unforgettable trip to Los Angeles to see my Michigan State Spartans play in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. Of course, there was a lot of great beer enjoyed throughout the holiday season. On trips, I love to try local and regional beers and make selections that are hard to find back home. Here are some of the highlights of beer experiences I had during the holidays.

One of my favorite styles is the double IPA, so I picked up a couple different ones from two Salt Lake City breweries. My brother-in-law Geoff recommended Elephino double IPA from Red Rock Brewery, and I also selected Hop Rising double IPA from Squatters Brewery. Both breweries are located in downtown Salt Lake City, and were part of the city's brewpub resurgence of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Elephino is an very enjoyable beer, with a lot of big citrus and piney hop qualities. It has all the elements you'd expect from this style. Hop Rising is also a great beer, with a stronger malt backbone than most double IPAs. The beer is brewed with three different malts and three different hop varieties, resulting in a huge beer with the usual grapefruit, citrus, and pine notes from the hops and a sweetness from the malt presence.

Back in Denver in between trips, I paid a visit to Rackhouse Pub for dinner and beers with my wife Kris. We discovered one of the most delicious beers around town right now, the Epically Strange Cherry Imperial Stout. This beer is a blend between Strange Brewing's Cherry Kriek and Epic Brewing's Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout. It's a very dark, strong beer with huge cherry flavors and dark roasted malts with a hint of coffee and chocolate. I highly suggest trying this beer if you see it around Denver this winter. Another tasty, intriguing beer I had was the Breckenridge Brewery Whiskey Barrel Aged Holidale, an American Strong Ale aged in whiskey barrels. If you like whiskey and beer, it's definitely one to try. There's a huge whiskey presence right up front, giving way to complex flavors like caramel, chocolate and dark fruits.

Out in the Los Angeles area, I enjoyed some different west coast IPAs primarily. Bear Republic Racer 5, Lagunitas IPA, Green Flash IPA and Lagunitas SUCKS double IPA were delicious. My brother Jon, Kris and I had some beers on New Year's Eve at the Blue Palms Brewhouse in Hollywood, not too far from where we stayed. It's a great beer bar that has 24 rotating taps, friendly service and a welcoming vibe. A unique local beer Kris enjoyed was Naughty Sauce Nitro from Noble Ale Works in Anaheim. It's a golden milk stout brewed with oats and lactose sugar, and coffee instead of roasted grain. It pours a golden, hazy color, has a very creamy mouthfeel from the nitrogen and lactose, and has a nice coffee flavor that's not too overpowering. Overall, the evening was a great way to close out 2013 and look forward to the new year, which couldn't have started any better with MSU winning the Rose Bowl.