Candy Cane Swirl Martini

Yes, it has finally happened… I’m doing a review of a froo-froo “martini” cocktail drink. Why? Well, because I drank it. Why not? For the holidays, my sister wanted us to each come up with a fun drink to share. I would’ve done my über-classic Old Fashioned, but when it comes to rye whiskey, a bit of orange peel, a squirt of simple syrup, and a dash of bitters (no cherries, orange slices, muddling or soda water for this classic cocktail), not everyone is a fan. So, to appeal to my sister and the rest of the family who would be drinking, I thought this Candy Can Swirl Martini would be a fun drink.

I found the recipe at What to Drink and it isn’t too bad, really, although it’s hardly a session drink due to the sweetness. It’s 3 oz of cranberry juice, 1 oz of raspberry vodka (I used Smirnoff and it was tasty), 0.5 oz each of Rose’s grenadine and peppermint schnapps. All of it goes with ice into a shaker, then pour into martini glass. Top with lemon-lime soda.

I crushed a bunch of candy canes to rim the glasses as the recipe called for, but no one wanted to go through the trouble, so we ditched that part.

The mint is pretty strong on the drink, and the coolness of the mint as well as the slight astringency of the cranberry does lend a little balance to the raspberry vodka and grenadine, so this isn’t tooth-painfully sweet like you might think, but one or two of these is plenty. Not a bad flavor combination, as the fruit and mint seem to complement one another, but again, these types of froo-froo drinks have never been too high on my list.

Shmaltz Brewing Co. Mermaid Pilsner

The Coney Island line of lagers are a series of beers made by Shmaltz Brewing Co., which also makes the Hebrew brand of beers. I picked up a 12-pack sampler of the Coney Island beers this summer and found a couple still hiding in my fridge, so it seemed like a review (albeit out of season) was in order.

The Mermaid Pilsner is a pilsner made from four hops and seven malts and I found it to be an easy drinker and a great example of a clean pilsner beer.

Coming in at about 5.0% ABV (according to BeerAdvocate… Shmaltz’s website is light on info!), Mermaid pours a fairly clear dark yellow color with a foamy head. I drank it from a pilsner glass, of course.

Aroma is clean and has a sweet, malty character. I thought of honey when I was smelling the aroma, although it isn’t brewed with honey nor does it have any honey characteristics in the flavor.

The beer has a nice amount of carbonation which makes it really easy to drink. It has a malt-forward, but well-balanced flavor, with a finish that is slightly bitter from the hops. This beer is REALLY easy to drink and just goes down great. It’s a nice thirst-quencher, and at 5%, you could drink a few of these without being in too bad of shape!

Mermaid is a really crisp beer with a surprising amount of complexity. Although it is well-balanced, there is a distinct difference between the malt-forward initial part of the sip and the hoppy end/aftertaste.

Initially turned off a little by Shmaltz’s corny schtick, I’ve found that their beers in both the Hebrew and Coney Island line are really well made, and I’m a fan. Mermaid is a great example of a pilsner and it should be a go-to beer in the warm months. This would be an excellent choice to have at a party for your non-craft beer drinking friends, too. Can you say “gateway” beer?

Boulevard 21st Anniversary Fresh Hop Pale Ale

Boulevard delivered its first kegs of beer in 1989, and to honor the 21st anniversary of the brewery, the company decided to make a fresh-hopped version of its flagship Pale Ale. This is a limited edition Smokestack series beer, and like all Smokestack beers it comes in a 750mL caged & corked bottle. At 7.4% ABV that’s a lot of beer to drink by oneself, but someone has to do it.

In full disclosure, while Boulevard is the local brewery and is well known for sending lots of samples around to bloggers, I bought this beer for $8 out of my own pocket, so my opinion is not clouded by freebies or schwag.

Boulevard has a nice website with lots of info about their beers. This Fresh Hop Pale Ale comes in at 40 IBU’s and uses a mix of five malts and five varieties of hops.

The beer pours a cloudy orange-amber color with a bubbly head that quickly thins out and disappears. Aroma is lighter than I expected, with a citrusy hop character and some alcohol. Rather than a nose full of grapefruit, the aroma is sort of pithy, which comes through in the flavor, too.

Tasting the beer, the sip starts right in the front of my tongue with a fruity, soft flavor that quickly spreads and becomes a pithy, grassy, citrusy hop flavor. There is a fair amount of malt to back up the hops and while it is certainly hop forward, this is similar in character to the Boulevard Pale Ale we all know so well. There are some other soft fruits in the flavor profile, too, with a little peach and apricot mixed in. The mouthfeel suffers a little from a watery character, and there is a slightly sour, grassy overtone to the hops (probably from the fresh hopping) that is different, but not unpleasant. The bitterness built a little after the first glass, but more than the bitterness, a juicy, fruity character developed that I really enjoyed.

I like this beer. At 7.4% it doesn’t have a lot of complexity I would prefer in a higher alcohol beer, but it is easy to drink and has a nice hop character. I would have liked to see it in a 12oz bottle so I didn’t have quite as much of a buzz from drinking it, but overall I think Boulevard did a great job with this beer. Fresh hopped beers are best drunk fresh, and do not gain anything good from aging, so if you bought any of this beer, drink it sooner than later. This is not one to cellar!

The Poet Oatmeal Stout – New Holland Brewing Company

New Holland Brewing Company is a brewery near and dear to my heart. When I moved to Michigan in 2000, the brewery was still just getting off its feet, more or less. Later, I lived a few blocks from the beautiful brewpub in downtown Holland, MI. I’m thankful I can get their beers now here in Kansas City, too, although I will forever miss the weekly growler night when I could fill my 1/2 gallon jug with any of their mainstay beers for $4!

The Poet is one of NHBC’s mainstay beers, brewed all year. It is a nice example of an oatmeal stout and it’s one of my favorite beers. It pours black with red highlights and a nice tan head that sticks around for a long time. The aroma is roasty and chocolatey, although neither of those are main components of the flavor profile. Some dark fruit comes across on the nose, too.

The Poet has the slick mouthfeel you’d associate with an oatmeal stout (coming from the oatmeal itself) and the light carbonation adds to its silky texture. There is a good balance in this beer between malty flavors and the hops and bitterness that comes from the dark roasting of the malts. Up front, the beer is very balanced, with dark fruit predominating, then in the aftertaste a nice, pleasantly warm roastiness settles in. This is not the dry, carbonized roast of some stouts, but a mild, easy flavor that doesn’t leave you feeling like you just sucked on some charcoal.

The Poet isn’t the most complex oatmeal stout by a long shot, but it is a nice, easy drinker at 5.2%ABV and I enjoy it every time I drink it. It pairs really great with pretty much any kind of food outside of the lightest fair, so it’s no wonder it is perennially one of New Holland’s most popular beers.