Beer of the Week! 12/20/22

A Duo of Very Different Hop-Forward Beers for the Holidays

Duvel 6.66%

Regularly $17.99 / Now on Sale for $16.96
Belgian Blonde Ale

The international brewery conglomerate that is Duvel Moortgat started in 1871 with a farm brewery in Breendonk, Belgium — south of Antwerp. The husband and wife team of Maria De Block and Jan-Leonard Moortgat started things off, then, decades later, their son, Albert took over the brewing. So, it was Albert who, during WWI (while watching his entire multi-national imperialist-militarist structure violently and lethally implode), was introduced to English soldiers and their beers. After the war, Albert wrangled some yeast out of Scottish brewers and brewed a blonde ale in 1923. He called it the “Victory Ale” only to have a local shoemaker exclaim that it was, “een echte Duvel!” (“a real devil!”). Thus was born the blonde ale that would be so linked with the brewery that they made it part of the name.

Now, Duvel has brewed a jazzier version of their eponymous beer. Regular Duvel uses Saaz and Styrian Goldings hops. The 6.66% (See what they did there?) starts with those two and throws in four additional hop varieties. They then dry-hop the hell out of the beast. (See what we double did there?)

What you get with the 6.66% is a good-old Duvel with a new, vibrant hop buzz radiating mandarin orange notes. It doesn’t go far enough to be a Belgian IPA, but it’s a certainly a Belgian ale that values its hop flavor. (We’ve even got normal Duvel on sale too, just in case you want to do a side-by-side comparison.)

Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause Mrs. Claus needs a little something extra to put up with Santa during “crunch time.”)

Sierra Nevada Celebration IPA

Regularly $11.99 / Now on Sale for $9.96
Fresh Hop West Coast Style IPA

Every year, scores of craft breweries put out their Christmas beers, and craft beer pioneer Sierra Nevada in Chico, California is no exception … well, existentially, no — but stylistically, yes. You see, other breweries will put out winter warmers and spiced stouts, but this is Sierra Nevada we’re talking about here. While they leave out milk and cookies for Santa, they brew up a fresh hop IPA for us. (By the way, three hours south in Petaluma, we’re pretty sure the cookies that Lagunitas leaves are edibles. We’re just saying.)

Chico sits 90 miles north of Sacramento and, most importantly, 550 miles south of the Yakima Valley hop fields. So, when they make their Celebration Ale, they take whole cone Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops that have been picked, thrown onto a truck, and then throw them into a vat — never dried, never pelletized. You can tell the difference! The Celebration IPA is brand spanking dank! You get a wave of resiny hoppiness that floods over the cherry noted malt like a melted glacier-fed ocean laughing at dikes.

We’ll be honest, this beer is not trying to bowl down the middle. It will not be for everybody, but it’s just what you expect from your favorite Northern California hop-atics. That’s the great thing about Sierra Nevada. They know who they are and do not hold back.

Remember!

You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!