Hourglass Brewery Announces next bottle release: La Fee Dragee Rum Barrel Aged Christmas Ale

La Fée Dragée Bottle Release

Third bottle release from The Hourglass Brewery available December 19, 2015

Longwood, Florida (December 8, 2015) – The Hourglass Brewery will be releasing its third special release bottle since moving to their new location at 480 S. Ronald Reagan Blvd in Longwood, FL. This is also the second bottle release in as many months from The Hourglass Brewery.

La Fée Dragée is a 9% ABV Belgian Christmas Ale aged in Nicaraguan rum barrels. This holiday beer includes a bevy of delicious dried fruits and spices and bursts with tasting notes of apricots, plums, and Turkish figs.

In French, La Fée means "The Fairy" and Dragée means "Confection." La Fée Dragée, or the sugar plum fairy, has been inexorably linked to the Christmas season since the 1800s when these dancing fairies were immortalized in Tchaikovsky's, The Nutcracker, and Clement Clarke Moore’s idyllic poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas”. La Fée Dragée is a beer modeled after sugarplum candies befitting any holiday occasion.

Bottles will be available for purchase at the brewery on December 19, 2015 beginning at 11 a.m., along with limited distribution in Orange and Seminole counties. They will be priced at $18 each. Special Holiday 4-packs will also be available: 2 bottles of La Fée Dragée and 2 bottles of Nut Squasher Bourbon Barrel Aged Autumn Ale for $60.

The bottle features label art by Hourglass’ in-house artist and longtime employee, Jeremy Gonzalez.

About The Hourglass Brewery

The Hourglass Brewery is a 10 bbl production brewery in beautiful downtown Longwood, Florida. Currently, the facility is 8,000+ sq/ft and growing with 4,500+ sq/ft dedicated to a state of the art taproom and music venue for locals and tourists. Further expansion in early 2016 will include additional 20 bbl fermenters, a canning line, and a wild ale fermentation room.

Known for making unique specialty brews throughout the year, The Hourglass Brewery also offers a number of flagship ales available year-round. Their extensive barrel fermenting, aging, and wild ale program produces frequent bottle releases, so keep your eyes peeled for the next one soon!

Saint Arnold Sailing Santa

Brewery:  Saint Arnold Brewing Co.
Location: Houston, TX

Style: American IPA/Blend
ABV: 7%
Price: Unknown (Given as gift)

Texas' oldest craft brewery, Saint Arnold has literally helped define Houston's craft beer scene. In fact, Saint Arnold is what I refer to as my personal gateway brewery. I owe my craft beer allegiance to this brewery. I am forever a fan and advocate of this brewery!

I moved to Houston right out of college in 2007 and "craft beer" was not anywhere on my radar. Once settled, there were two Texas breweries that I took a liking to: Shiner and Saint Arnold. Both have important places in my beer journey, but I credit the latter for my love of craft beer.

Unfortunately, craft beer can be expensive and I was just a budding professional on a humble teacher's salary. Luckily, Saint Arnold held affordable $5 brewery tours every Saturday (the brewery has since moved locations, grown significantly, and now holds daily brewery tours for $7). It was at these tours that I began learning about hand-crafted beer; and it was there, in the middle of their brewery tour, standing beside a few hundred pounds of barley, that I became a born-again beer drinker.

Now that we've gone down memory lane and tears have all but dried on my cheeks, let's get to today's review.

Image taken from saintarnold.com

Sailing Santa is a seasonal blend of their Elissa (IPA) and Christmas Ale. The beer pours a nice copper/amber color. The head thins quickly and leaves a minimal lacing around the glass.

The aroma is a great blend of sweet malts and earthy hops. Given that Saint Arnold has labeled this beer as an IPA, I would say the aroma is a bit incongruent to the typical aroma of an IPA.

This beer is malt-forward. Again, I think it's mislabeled. The taste and aromatic profile fit more as a winter warmer in my opinion. The front flavors are all malt, caramel, toffee, and maybe a little maple syrup. The hop profile from the Elissa IPA portion of the blend are mild and subtle. Pine sneaks in towards the finish of this, which is also a tad dry. I do pick up on the cinnamon that was apparently added to the 2012 version. It's a pleasant flavor that lingers nicely.

Overall, this is a solid winter beer, but it's just not an IPA. I understand that Saint Arnold wants to capitalize on the blend which uses Elissa IPA, but it disappoints if being compared to true IPAs. Style aside, this is an enjoyable blend that's highly drinkable and perfect for the season. As I said above, this reminds me more of an earthy winter warmer. I appreciate the subtle hops in this beer, but the prevailing flavors are the heavier malt profiles and warming spices.

Sweetwater Festive Ale

Brewed just once a year and with 8.5% alcohol, this is is a winter seasonal that is beginning to gain quite a large following. Before moving to Florida, I was fairly unfamiliar with SweetWater and have been sampling each of their beers as they've come my way. Festive is my favorite beer out of the Atlanta brewery thus far; though I have only had a handful to date (420, Blue, IPA, Road Trip). This beer was reviewed in the Beer Advocate Magazine (issue #39) and this quote really sums up why I like this beer: "Happy to see more beefed-up versions of the Winter Warmer style? Do you want a mouthful of pie spices, or do you want to drink a beer?" I'll take the latter, Alex, for 300.

Festive Ale is definitely a beer, and it is a good example of what happens when you have a quality beer that is adequately spiced to meet the needs of a particular style. Festive is full of the usual Christmas ale suspects--cinnamon, nutmeg, and some dark fruits. However, there's substance beyond all the spices.

The body is mildly frothy, but there's enough carbonation to let you know this is definitely not a stout. The taste includes all of the spices, but is much sweeter than I expected. Very malty with a burnt sugar flavor. I also get brown sugar and a tad of chocolate. The alcohol is prevalent near the finish and the label "winter warmer" is quite appropriate.

Overall, I really enjoyed this beer and will probably sit on a bottle or two for next year to do a side-by-side next year.