{craving} holiday beers

 

One of my favorite social groups, the Richmond Beer Lovers, had their holiday party this weekend at Gallery 5 and I brought cupcakes.

These days I love a potluck, especially when it is an opportunity for me to make beercakes for people who truly appreciate them. I made a chocolate version of my Hardywood Gingerbread Stout cupcakes with cream cheese butter cream frosting. I topped half of them with chocolate chips and left the other half naked. I was amazed how quick the chocolate chip cupcakes flew off the table. You would have thought that they were topped with cocaine. It was a good lesson for future cupcake garnishing.

The second best part of the Beer Lovers event (the first being watching people love my cupcakes) was the beer exchange. Everyone brought a wrapped 750ml bottle of a special beer and left with a different one. We brought a bottle of Dogfish Bitches Brew and a bottle of Blue Mountain Local Species. We left with a bottle of Shmaltz Brewing Company’s He’Brew Jewbelation Sweet 16 and a bottle of Terrapin Beer Company’s Liquid Bliss.

Let’s talk for a minute about this Liquid Bliss situation. It is chocolate, peanut butter porter. You read that correctly, chocolate, PEANUT BUTTER porter. I scored so big with this beer. I cannot wait to put this baby in a cupcake. It is like we were meant to be together. Yes, I just wrote that about me and a beer.

I also want to give a shout out to two other brews that I had at Gallery 5. These two would be perfect beers to add to your holiday shopping lists. Dark Horse’s Percolator, literally tastes like a Starbucks latte. I could absolutely fool someone into thinking they were drinking iced coffee and then watch them stumble. It would be the opposite effect of feeding someone chocolate covered espresso beans and then watching them get wound up. The second honorable mention is Heavy Seas Winter Storm which is an ESB, which means Extra Special / Strong Bitter. I will admit right here that I had to google that. To me it was malty and sweet, not bitter at all, but what do I know.

So there you have it, a bunch of beers to get your through the holidays. I’ll recap them here for your ease of review:

Hardywood Gingerbread Stout – of course
Dogfish Bitches Brew – because we are all a little bitchy around the holidays
Blue Mountain Local Species – drink local!
Shmaltz Brewing Company’s He’Brew Jewbelation Sweet 16
Terrapin Beer Company’s Liquid Bliss – chocolate peanut butter, people!
Dark Horse Brewing Company Perkulator Coffee Dopplebock
Heavy Seas Winter Storm – not so bitter, but definitely extra special

Cheers!