Town Hall Festivus 2014

Town Hall Festivus 2014. Town Hall makes 3 seasonal brews every holiday season, some change and some don't. Grinches Grog is always some kind of a pale ale, Elves' Elixir seems to always be a Baltic Porter, and Festivus, for the rest of us, is the one that is drastically different every single year. This time it's a barrel-aged red ale with spruce tips. Something like that. I had it on tap some time after release at the pub, enjoyed a glass, and picked up a growler weeks later, last Wednesday. Thinking back, remember what I tasted before, I think back to what I wrote a few days ago in praise of the mini-growler, and wonder if this one would also be a good candidate for the smaller vessel. We can only find out for sure once I crack open this 64-ouncer.

Appearance: Clear, bright crimson coloring, slim, soon gone head.

Aroma: Lightly spicy, fruity, floral, a little sweet and mostly malty.

Taste: A big bolt of sweet at first, That spruce shines through it all. Wood-aging at work, too. Big spruceness meets a flash of sweet. Rosy, fruity and sweet. 'm almost ready to go ahead and call it a spruce bomb. Just because. The spruce is matching the malt, and threatening to stay on top.

In the end, I have to think: a noble experiment, but not what I want. Based on that, I do wish I had chosen a mini-growler for this one. four pints is a bit more than I feel like getting into. But, I made this bed, and I will lie in it.

Don't get me wrong, this is right on for a fun holiday ale, but only if you're having a few, and that's it. (Amend that to "only if I'M having a few"...to each their own, of course."