Why We Picked It: Because we are as mad as a drunk elf.
What Troegs Says About It: The Holidays at Troegs start with our inner Mad Elf momentarily taking over the brew deck. So blame “him” for this cheerful ruby red creation reminiscent of ripened cherries, raw honey, and cocoa with notes of cinnamon, clove, and allspice.
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
ABV: 11%
IBU: 15
Website: https://troegs.com/
To Better Know A Brewery:
I'm getting my game on early today.
ReplyDeletePartly because I can and partly because I've spend all day searching for a bag of hidden present 🎁 for my wife and I can't for the life of me remember where they are. WTF.
I remember as a kid hearing my parents and they're friends talk about forgetting things and I'd think, how can you possibly forget something that simple you old morons. Well, I'm officially an old moron.
Next, I'd like to thank the three kings for putting this smashing event together for another year. Special kiddos for doing it during a pandemic. I have enjoyed the experience daily with great anticipation regardless of my feelings for the beer itself.
This is the last night and with a heavy heart I say happy holidays to all y'all and a healthy, joyous and prosperous new year. But with great joy I look forward to doing all the great things we talked about on our virtual meeting, like a brewery crawl on pogo sticks.
As for mad elf, better then last night's, but not by much.
π√1.5 out of 5 elf bowling.
Hate to break it to you, but speaking from experience, a Mad Elf won't help you find anything.
DeleteWell Merry Christmas to all! Thanks to the org organizers for putting this on. It’s been fun to try a lot of new beers (and reaffirm a lot of my “I just want a beer that tastes like beer” beliefs).
ReplyDeleteOn a cherry strength scale of 0-10 this is about a 4. However my over under for cherry tolerance in beer is a 0.5. It kind of reminds me of a medicinal black cherry ice cream (which I never liked but my dad would always have in the house growing up).
1.5 out of 5 cherry bombs.
Speaking of cherry bombs one final story to end off the year. When I was 12 a developer bought the 2 corn fields that connected to my parents house. They quickly built houses and we had an influx of ground hogs move from the fields into the tree rows that separated the property lines.
Well they started to eat all of my moms flowers so we went down to the farmers bureau to get some traps. An old man told us not to worry about traps. Just light a tennis ball on fire and roll it down. They slowly fall asleep and die. So it’s a very nice way to kill something if your are going to kill it. He said it’s like turning your car on in your garage to kill yourself (he had clearly and sadly put some thought into that before).
Well the next day my mom ran out to the store my dad jumped up and said Adam let’s go. I said ok and followed, as we got outside I said what are we doing. He brings me to a bucket and he has been soaking tennis balls in gas overnight. “So they would light easier”. We get some news paper and wrap the balls in paper so they have a nice little wick to light. As we are doing this my sister comes out. She asks if she can help....OFCOURSE (what could go wrong). Well there are only 3 of us but several holes so we go around and fill in all but 3 holes with dirt. As we go to get the tennis balls my dad suggests dumping the extra gas in the holes “just to make sure”. So we do. We stuff the tennis balls-gas-news paper things in the 3 holes. We all get a match. I light match get it about 2 inches from the hole and BOOOM a fireballs just shoots out over my head, blows me back and I look across and on slow motion a giant ball of fire goes around my dad. I look to my left at my sister and she had lit her match and dropped it. It’s slowly falling to the ground it gets near the paper and BOOOM a fire ball just wraps around her leg. I run over and pick her up and run her to the pool and throw her in.
My dad comes over and says is she ok. I look up at him...his eyebrows and and bangs are GONE. I gasp and yell oh shit. Over his shoulder I can see that the wood pile my parents kept for our fire pit was on fire. The ground hog den was directly under it. My dad grabs the hose and starts to put out the fire.
My sister gets out of the pool and her leg is thankfully ok, just has what looks like bad sun burn. My dads eyebrows took a few years to fully come back and he was able to put the fire out.
To this day my mom finds no humor in the story while it’s a fond memory for my sister and I.
The war with the ground hogs would continue for the next few years and would eventually be won. It was followed by the squirrel wars which was also a hard fought war with some chemical warfare (whole peanuts soaked antifreeze won the war over time).
Oh man. I am speechless. Why is this not a classic coming of age movie?
DeleteThis is an amazing story, and I can picture the chaos.
DeleteAh, Mad Elf. Such a holiday tradition. This pretty much represents everything I should hate in a beer but I just love it. Seems to be very heavy on the cherries. I don't like cherries much in anything. Except this beer. I think the fact it's an ale makes it lighter and makes me like it so much more than the last couple of beers. And I've got a long history with this beer. Is very odd drinking this when it's 63 degrees and monsooning as I wait for a potential tornado, but it's definitely hitting the spot. And I'm so excited that we decided to add a bonus day so I get to do this again tomorrow (not that I wouldn't be doing it anyway without a schedule and a blog, but I appreciate the structure). 4 out of 5 stupid elves on a fucking shelf which my 8 year old still somehow believes in requiring me to remember to move "Snowflake" every damn night before bed and causing psychological trauma if I forget (and a scolding from Ro).
ReplyDeleteOne year I pined "popcorns leg under a heavy book. Told the kids he had to wait for his people to come help as we are not allowed. His people are really busy this time of year, took them 5 days to arrive. Daddy happy, mother pissed, kids really worried.
DeleteI even suggested we leave a saw arm's length. Popcorn may get despite. Wife didn't let me 🙁
Desperate that is.
DeleteHappy Christmas Eve! I truly love a Mad Elf as well. Not only do you get a little kick after just one beer (well, I do) but the "holiday" flavors are actually tasty and not like cough syrup or Jagermeister (not a knock on Jager, which has been a fond part of my past). How is this month possibly over already? I thought December would be interminable but it has flown by. Happy to say I'll be back tomorrow thanks to Bill who gave me a Celebration when I picked up my case.
ReplyDeleteMad elf is stronger and spicier than I typically prefer but a welcome winter warmer to sip on Xmas eve. Thanks to all who made 24DoB happen, breaking the monotony of the pandemic each night. Sorry to see it end. Merry Christmas everyone!
ReplyDeleteSo based on preliminary research, Mad Elf has appeared six time in 24DOB and been the Christmas Eve beer the last three (may be time to mix it up).
ReplyDeleteHowever, in my mind, it's becoming almost a Xmas Eve tradition for me. I am a big fan. Boozey plus holiday spice and cherry are all right up my alley. It is strong but never seems to overwhelm. I give it 4.25 out of 5 Buddy the Elf's.
Hope a few can join us tomorrow for a Celebration or whatever you have to drink. It's a been a great 24DOB with great participation and amazing comments.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
Mad Elf is always a solid closer for this - though definitely agree with some others that there seems to be a bit more cherry coming through this year than I recall in years past. Thanks all who put this together and for all the commentary.
ReplyDeleteI agree...a solid closer for the season...merry Christmas all.
ReplyDeleteGreg -- I totally dig this one. Woo hoo! So glad to end on it, though, truth be told, I bought a 750 ml bottle of Mad Elf Grand Cru and had that today. As it proclaims, the grand cru is the "director's cut" of Mad Elf, even cherrier, even somehow stronger (though not necessarily by ABV). Both were a treat. Merry Mad Elf Day!
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