With Thanksgiving coming up, you must be asking yourself 'What can I drink at Thanksgiving to make the day an absolutely unparalleled success?" (if only our drinks choices were the lone determining factor!) and even if you weren't, I'd bet you are now. Well your prayers have been answered! In what's sure to be a highly anticipated annual event, we have blogged some incredible pairing advice for you! So without further ado...
Brasserie La Choulettes - Les Sans Culottes
A French Biere de Garde (beer for keeping), think saison with a slightly darker malt character, and a little bit of a floral aspect. The darker malts and the earthy yeast play so nicely with roasted poultry, root vegetables, and all of the other autumnal flavors you find in a classic Thanksgiving meal. This is the beer that will be on this raging beer enthusiast's Thanksgiving table.
Valdinera - Roero Arneis 2014
A little bit of an obscure grape variety, Arneis is a white grape hailing from the Piedmont region of Italy, a region that typically makes one think of red wine (Barolo, Barbaresco, Langhe, etc). What you get with this wine is a remarkably complex, dry white wine with a beautiful peachy quality, slightly rounder and floral honied aspect, and a faintly nutty finish reminiscent of almonds. A very nice wine for a number of reasons, but it's the nutty quality that makes it shine on the Thanksgiving table. Bring this one on Thursday and look like a pro.
Mayflower - Thanksgiving Ale
A somewhat obvious choice, but this beer just nails it. What we have here is a robust (7% abv), but dry brown ale, with a little bit of rye thrown in the mix and then aged in barrels for several months. There's great dry malt presence, a spicy, earthy rye finish, and it's all tinged with a soft toasted oakiness. Pitch perfect for this time of year and compliments a turkey dinner like it's it's job (which it kind of is).
Illahe - Pinot Noir - Willamette Valley
Pinot noir is the quintessential Thanksgiving pairing, so let us recommend to you one of our favorites. This Illahe has a pleasant strawberry type fruitiness, a bit of chocolate, tobacco, and that requisite earthy leafy quality that we love in pinot noir. The vineyard is certified sustainable through LIVE, certified Salmon Safe, and all the grapes harvested are brought back to the winery by resident horses Doc and Bea to reduce use of fossil fuels.
The Beers of Transmitter Brewing Co.
Out of Long Island City in NYC, Transmitter makes some wonderful, precise, but rustic farmhouse beers. We currently have on offer seven varieties. Their distinctive labels detail the various differences between them. Without exception, all of these beers have qualities that will be right at home on your holiday table.
Hardwick - Massetts. Cranberry
A fun one for the season, this is a local white wine with Massachusetts cranberry juice blended in. It comes across light and fruity with a nice tart cranberry finish. This wine is surprisingly satisfying and is a no-brainer pairing. Locavores take note, everything in this wine is Massachusetts sourced!
Clown Shoes - Coffee Pecan Pie Porter
Taking their Pecan Pie Porter to the next level, this year Clown Shoes has added locally brewed cold brew coffee from Atomic Cafe in Beverly. As the name might suggest, what we have here is a slightly sweet robust porter that's big on roasted malts, has a nice chocolatey aspect and a subtle nutty coffee character. Dessert, coffee and after dinner drinks in one place!
Have a favorite Thanksgiving pairing of your own? Use the comments button to let us know! Most of these are available on the barrel at the shop, so stop in a grab a few if you still have yet to nail down the drinks list on Thursday. We're open regular hours (until 8pm) everyday up until Wednesday evening. We'll be closed Thursday and back at it at noon on Friday! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!