{"id":8369,"date":"2020-01-04T00:06:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T06:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/?p=8369"},"modified":"2023-12-31T19:14:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T01:14:07","slug":"12-beers-of-christmas-12-berkshire-brewing-holidale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/8369\/12-beers-of-christmas-12-berkshire-brewing-holidale","title":{"rendered":"12 Beers of Christmas 12: Berkshire Brewing Holidale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tom<\/a>

Tom (left) and Kip Bedell<\/p><\/div>\n

Okay, it\u2019s a wrap. I wasn\u2019t intending to revisit Berkshire Brewing\u2019s Holidale the year after we last had it. (Some of the brewery background here in that report<\/a>.) But of the few beers I had requested from brewers for the 12 Beers extravaganza two never showed up (or haven\u2019t yet, anyway), even with another extra day tacked on. As I discovered last year, the Deerfield brewery changes the recipe for Holidale every year. And, I also happened to have a four-pack on hand. QED.<\/p>\n

Nice timing here, actually, as my brother and sister-in-law came up from Long Island for our delayed Christmas, and it\u2019s always good to run a beer across his trained vintner\u2019s palate. (Kip, now retired, and Susan, started Bedell Cellars<\/a> in Cutchogue in 1979; the first vintage was 1985.)<\/p>\n

We exchanged presents shortly after they arrived, cracked the beer open, carried it over to dinner, then played bridge for about four hours. After that we couldn\u2019t remember what the beer tasted like.<\/p>\n

Only kidding. Kip said, \u201cI thought it had a toasty malt character, with ample fruit, a fairly full-bodied sweetish malty finish.\u201d Pretty much what I thought. The beer poured out like many in this year\u2019s roundup, dark brown with reddish glints. It had a rich, raspberry and caramel malt nose with mild alcoholic vapors.<\/p>\n

\"bbc<\/a>The raspberry\u2014if not as pronounced as the Stony Creek Winter Weight<\/a> from Day 3\u2014is nonetheless unmistakable, and it carries over into the palate, the beer a swirl of sweet and fruity flavors with a full and velvety mouth feel.<\/p>\n

I thought it was a great beer to finish off with, an ambitious brew that, according to Clay Cummings, the Director of Operations at BBC, was something a little different for the brewery, a blend of three different beers:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually had some of last year\u2019s Holidale, an Imperial Stout, aging in the warehouse, so we blended that with a batch of fresh blond barleywine, and then a fresh batch of raspberry barleywine. We aged them all together in stainless, and released it about a week before Thanksgiving.\u201d<\/p>\n

BBC doesn\u2019t put the ABV on its cans because, Cummings noted, \u201cIt\u2019s usually something of a moving target. But the Holidale was 9.5% this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s none left in the warehouse this\u00a0time so this year\u2019s batch, said Cummings, \u201cWill be here till it\u2019s gone.\u201d My recommendation comes from that great Dylan lyric, \u201c…whatever you wish to drink, you better grab it fast.\u201d Something like that.<\/p>\n

Well, I said we\u2019d get \u2018em all in before Epiphany. Two days off, but 12 beers in 14 days, not bad. And the brews were definitely not bad, one of the more successful runs we\u2019ve had. Thanks as always for going along for the ride. The beers go ever onward, so cheers for the New Year ahead, and more happy discoveries on the way.<\/p>\n

\"BBC<\/a>Name: Holidale 2020
\nBrewer: Berkshire Brewing Company, South Deerfield, Massachusetts
\nStyle: Blended Barleywine
\nABV: 9.5%
\nAvailability: Seasonally in MA, CT
\nFor More Information: https:\/\/berkshire-brewing.com\/<\/p>\n

[January 3, 2020]<\/em><\/p>\n

< 12 Beers of Christmas 11: Trois Dames Winter Sour<\/a>
\n12 Beers of Christmas 2019 Reprise<\/a> ><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, it\u2019s a wrap. I wasn\u2019t intending to revisit Berkshire Brewing\u2019s Holidale the year after we last had it. (Some… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":8371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[939,627,18],"tags":[1029860,749,752,603,370950,676069,867419,975813,975814,1002722,1016809],"class_list":["post-8369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer-on-tap","category-tap-beer-of-the-week","category-lifestyle","tag-clay-cummings","tag-christmas","tag-kip-bedell","tag-massachusetts","tag-berkshire-brewing-co","tag-christmas-beers","tag-bedell-cellars","tag-holidale","tag-barleywine","tag-12-beers-of-christmas","tag-south-deerfield"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/01\/bbc-tk-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369","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=8369"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9612,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369\/revisions\/9612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}