The Bruery 4 Calling Birds spices up my last night in San Francisco

I partied hard last night to celebrate the end of school at a Christmas themed party, where there was Maker's Mark and Fernet on tap, which is David's wet dream, but arrrgh. I hate it. Fernet is the worst. The hipsters up in San Fran love it with ginger ale, but I still can't handle the licorice and spiced fused concoction. Spice seems to be the theme of week though.

Today I turned in my portfolio, outlining several campaigns I helped create over the last three months during school. The lead campaign in my portfolio was actually a personal one, this blog. It was really interesting looking back on the year and why I initially began the blog. The retrospective has my wheels turning. I finished an epic year of beer every day, now what happens? How do I approach writing the blog now? My goal last year was simply to finish the year, and after beer 365, I decided to continue until the round number of 400. 3 months have passed without a post. This is the beginning of a new era, the renewal of my exploration of craft beer. What is my goal now? I have ideas but will hone in on something more specific in the new year.

Until then, I return to my favorite brewery and one of its most epic beer series, The Bruery's 12 Days of Christmas. This year it's 4 Calling Birds. A Partridge and a Pear Tree was before my time with The Bruery, 2 Turtle Doves was a tour de force, 3 French Hens was a powerful dark belgian strong ale, but how will 4 Calling Birds deliver?

An astronaut playing the banjo is my portfolio cover. It seems odd but it says what it needs to.  For instance, Space is awesome and I'm a nerd. Deep stuff.

4 Calling Birds is an 11% dark ale brewed with gingerbread like spice. You can age it for 8 years but I couldn't let a Christmas go past without at least trying it. In the Christmas spirit, I want to say I'm thankful for having a completed portfolio, to be enjoying my favorite craft brewery, not being a student any longer, and seeing my family tomorrow in Houston. I appreciate the indulgence of Christmas like spices here, but after a half a glass down, I'm not thankful for the spicy qualities, which are overwhelming.

A couple more sips gulps later and the brew still isn't integrating with the spices well. This is an example of The Bruery doing what they do well, a dark strong belgian ale, like their Cuadruple (made with agave), but the spices could definitely be more subtle. The Two Turtle Doves was orgasmic, it was so complex. This year they went more Christmasy and less belgian, and the result is a 'spirited' brew. With the robustness of this spice, this is a beer to share with others and not alone, but I'll finish it all the same. The Bruery rocks, unfortunately, this is not The Rock. TRANSFORMERS rating.