{"id":7974,"date":"2018-12-19T21:25:06","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T03:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/?p=7974"},"modified":"2018-12-25T00:18:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-25T06:18:10","slug":"12-beers-of-christmas-2018-6-troegs-blizzard-of-hops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/7974\/12-beers-of-christmas-2018-6-troegs-blizzard-of-hops","title":{"rendered":"12 Beers of Christmas 2018 \u2013 6: Tro\u00ebg\u2019s Blizzard of Hops"},"content":{"rendered":"\"BoH<\/a>\n

My good friend Ace Schmidt (the golfer formerly known as Ed (long story)) wondered today on the social interwebs (where his other alias is the Golf Travel Guru<\/a>) how I had time to write the 12 Beers of Christmas when there\u2019s, \u201c\u2026 all that gift wrapping. Poor elves must be working some serious overtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, yes, if by poor elves we mean my wife, who has indeed been wrapping up a storm with decorative aplomb. That she does this while I\u2019m semi-reclined on the couch sipping beer and typing away and doesn\u2019t impale me with a pair of scissors is further proof she\u2019s on the road to sainthood.<\/p>\n

But Ace makes a point about the time, and at the halfway point of the annual quest I needed a bit of a break. Hey, I had a busy day, meeting up for a lunch with the usual foursome (our alias being the MOTO Research Team), doing a few chores, and picking up the Christmas tree, which can be espied between bottle and glass in the picture below.<\/p>\n\"BoH\"<\/a>\n

Call me lazy, but I figured a \u201cWinter IPA\u201d wouldn\u2019t put me through the wringer, and it didn\u2019t. I suppose I could accuse Tro\u00ebg\u2019s of a bit of laziness, too. I mean, there\u2019s really nothing \u201cwintry\u201d about this beer other than slapping on its tag as a Winter IPA and releasing it seasonally.<\/p>\n

\"Mad<\/a>

The Mad Elf<\/p><\/div>\n

But I won\u2019t, because Tro\u00ebg\u2019s also makes a quintessential Christmas ale, Mad Elf<\/a>, which made the list in 2013 and is not to be missed.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve reviewed a number of Tro\u00ebg\u2019s beers through the years and the Hershey, Pennsylvania brewery is always a good bet. I don\u2019t think Blizzard of Hops is any kind of a threat to the brewery\u2019s best-selling Perpetual IPA<\/a>, but it\u2019s part of a four-beer yearly seasonal lineup called Hop Cycle.<\/p>\n

Swirling in this particular blizzard of bittering hops are Centennial, Chinook and El Dorado, while Chinook and Galaxy were using in dry-hopping. When it all settles down it\u2019s a lemon- to orange-hued brew with a lively white head, hazy (sort of a not-quite-a-New-England-IPA), with fruity hop aromas storming out of the glass.<\/p>\n

My poor elf and I both tasted the beer and she picked up lemon in the nose and pineapple on the palate; I thought the aroma was more in the tropical fruit and mango range. The Galaxy hops would account for any of these sensations.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a certain dank and doughy quality to the beer that puts me off a little\u2014actually, quite a bit like other NE IPAs I\u2019ve had lately\u2014but I quite like the subtly delayed but lingering bitter finish. Which is not like a NE IPA. In the end, it\u2019s a bit of a puzzler, a little like trying to figure out the difference between sleet and freezing rain.<\/p>\n

So, a solid enough blizzard of hops. If not one of my favorites, I can easily imagine this would be right in other IPA lovers\u2019 wheelhouse. Your move.<\/p>\n

\"troegs<\/a>Name: Blizzard of Hops
\nBrewer: Tro\u00ebg\u2019s Brewing Company, Hershey, Pennsylvania
\nStyle: IPA
\nABV: 6.4%
\nAvailability: Seasonally, in PA, CT, NJ, NY, MD, DE, OH, MA, VA, NC and D.C.
\nFor More Information: www.troegs.com<\/p>\n

[Dec. 19, 2018]<\/em><\/p>\n

< 12 Beers of Christmas 5: Berkshire Brewing Holidale 2018<\/a>
\n12 Beers of Christmas 7: Samuel Smith Winter Welcome<\/a> ><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My good friend Ace Schmidt (the golfer formerly known as Ed (long story)) wondered today on the social interwebs (where… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":7977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[939,627,18],"tags":[1016753,1016810,1016811,1016812,749,1016813,948,2734,676069,975743,975744,1002722],"class_list":["post-7974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer-on-tap","category-tap-beer-of-the-week","category-lifestyle","tag-perpetual-ipa","tag-blizzard-of-hops","tag-ed-schmidt","tag-ace-schmidt","tag-christmas","tag-the-golfer-formerly-known-as-ed","tag-pennsylvania","tag-hershey","tag-christmas-beers","tag-troegs","tag-mad-elf-ale","tag-12-beers-of-christmas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/12\/BoH.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7974"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7996,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974\/revisions\/7996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}