{"id":9220,"date":"2022-12-29T20:45:44","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T02:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/?p=9220"},"modified":"2023-01-04T12:57:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T18:57:45","slug":"12-beers-of-christmas-2022-3-black-hog-gingerbread-smores-stout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/9220\/12-beers-of-christmas-2022-3-black-hog-gingerbread-smores-stout","title":{"rendered":"12 Beers of Christmas 2022 – 3: Black Hog Gingerbread S\u2019mores Stout"},"content":{"rendered":"\"20221230_113243\"<\/a>\n

I had the tasting panel on hand for one more beer on Christmas evening, and I decided to go easy on them with a relatively low (5.5%) ABV beer. That didn\u2019t mean it was straightforward. Any beer that attempts to suggest marshmallows suggests trouble to me. And as a milk stout with flavors of gingerbread, chocolate, coffee and<\/em> marshmallows, I had some serious doubts.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it sure sounded Christmasy. And had I known about the background of the trio behind Black Hog Brewing I might have been less trepidatious, since they know food, and brewing.<\/p>\n

Brothers Jason and Tom Sobocinski are serial entrepreneurs in the New Haven area with deep culinary backgrounds, having opened and operated a cheese shop, a cheese truck, a restaurant and bar. Family friend Tyler Jones had the beer chops, with a resume including stints at Mercury Brewing in Ipswich, Massachusetts, Smuttynose Brewing and Portsmouth Brewery in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

\"Tyler<\/a>

Tyler Jones<\/p><\/div>\n

The three opened Black Hog Brewing in August 2014 and hit the ground running with some imaginative beers (Ginga\u2019 Ninja, a red IPA made with ginger; Granola Brown Ale, and Easy Rye\u2019Da, a low ABV rye IPA). The brewery now distributes to nine eastern states, and Jason is often out and about doing beer and cheese pairings or beer and barbecue pairings. (The brewery is apparently named for the brothers\u2019 habit of roasting hogs as part of family celebrations.)<\/p>\n

To cut to the chase, I was pleasantly surprised by the beer, and the rest of the panel was favorably impressed. \u201cI\u2019m getting white chocolate, nougat, espresso coffee bean candies. Maybe some ginger,\u201d said my son-in-law, Glenn, himself a restaurateur (Wildwood Barbeque<\/a> in Hadley, Massachusetts).<\/p>\n

\u201cMarshmallows for sure,\u201d said my son, Mike. \u201cA little like the ones you find in Lucky Charms.\u201d \u201cFluffernutter,\u201d said my daughter, Jennifer, pinch-hitting on the panel for this one. My prime sensation was a cocoa aroma, and coffee taking over in the palate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good beer, and not too sweet,\u201d said Glenn. Exactly right. Not too sweet. I was thinking back to last year\u2019s Frosted Sugar Cookie<\/a> from Southern Tier Brewing. Also a well-made beer, but just too sweet for me. The Black Hog brew, not so much. And it\u2019s impressive for how much flavor can be packed into a 5.5% ABV beer.<\/p>\n

True, the chances are still slim that I would sidle up to bar and clamor for another Gingerbread S\u2019mores Stout. But I did have another can on hand\u2026.<\/p>\n

\"bhb<\/a>Name: Gingerbread S\u2019mores Stout
\nBrewer: Black Hog Brewing Co., Oxford, Connecticut
\nStyle: Flavored Milk Stout
\nABV: 5.5%
\nAvailability: Seasonal, CT, NY, MA, RI, PA, ME, NH, NJ, DE
\nFor More Information: blackhogbrewing.com<\/p>\n

[December 29, 2022]<\/em><\/p>\n

< 12 Beers of Christmas 2: Three Taverns Feest Noel<\/a>
\n12 Beers of Christmas 4: Two Roads Holiday Ale<\/a> ><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the tasting panel on hand for one more beer on Christmas evening, and I decided to go easy… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":9222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[939,627,18],"tags":[676069,1035390,975721,1028284,975741,975796,975797,1002722,1006467,1035386,1035387,749,1035388,554,1035389],"class_list":["post-9220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer-on-tap","category-tap-beer-of-the-week","category-lifestyle","tag-christmas-beers","tag-tyler-jones","tag-wildwood-barbecue","tag-oxford","tag-12-days-of-christmas","tag-glenn-brunetti","tag-jennifer-bedell-brunetti","tag-12-beers-of-christmas","tag-mike-bedell","tag-gingerbread-smores-stout","tag-black-hog-brewing","tag-christmas","tag-tom-sobocinski","tag-connecticut","tag-jason-sobocinski"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/12\/bhb-gss.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9220","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=9220"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9244,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9220\/revisions\/9244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}