Grand Teton Brewing Co.
Victor, ID
Available: CA, CO, ID, IL, KS, MA, MN, MO, MT, ND, NV, SC, SD, WA, WI, WY
This is the second year Grand Teton has brewed Coming Home and they plan on a Holiday Ale series in the years to come. They use a collaborative approach to brewery decisions, and everyone in the company weighed in with ideas for this beer.
ABV: 9.0
ABW: 7.2
Color: 3.7
Bitterness: 42
Original gravity: 1072
Grand Teton's holiday offering this year is deceptive. First, it's a lovely color—a sunny, light golden—and one you don't see often during the wintry months. Flavors of honey, pink peppercorns and a touch of cloves beg for barbecue or Cajun food instead of holiday ham (but would go just as well). And there's a sneaky dose of alcohol that barely makes itself present in the rich, yet effervescent body of this luscious beer. It's everything you wouldn't expect it to be—just like a holiday surprise—and it will make you wish for Coming Home again and again.
Described as a Belgian-style golden ale, this is a powerful festive beer and, with its large bottle, definitely one to share in this season of goodwill. It’s mostly sweet on the palate, but with an almost clove-like, perfumed bitterness as a counterpoint and an obvious alcohol warmth. There’s plenty of juicy fruit floating around, too, with orange and melon notes that continue into the bittersweet finish that turns more bitter as the clove-like notes push through again. Even as the finish fades, the gums are left tingling and the throat warms to a seasonal winter-denying glow.
Lisa Morrison, aka The Beer Goddess, writes about beer whenever she can and also gets to talk about it on a weekly radio show in her hometown of Portland, OR.
Author of the Good Bottled Beer Guide and The Book of Beer Knowledge, Jeff Evans is an eight-time editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and one of Britain's best-known beer writers.
