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This is Beer in Front, part
of the Odd Pods Media Network. Sometimes

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the beer in front of you is
the best one yet. I'll talk about

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beers that maybe we've forgotten about.
I'll also talk to people around the beer

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world, getting their stories all about
beer. That's Beer in Front and it's

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coming up now. Welcome to the
December fifth edition, episode eighty nine of

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Beer in Front. I'm your host, Dave's Alatorus and Beer in Front is

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a proud odd Pods Media Network member. On this show, I'll be having

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some different holiday beers. Every brewery, it seems, has one, so

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I'm going to have three classics plus
a newer local one from Illinois. What

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is your favorite holiday beer? Please
email me daveatbeerinfront dot com or find me

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on social media channels at beer in
Front. Let me know in the next

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week. I'm also going to do
a holiday cider episode, so keep an

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ear out for that. I think
everyone who listens to this watches the video

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clips over on YouTube and TikTok.
If you'd like to support the show,

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visit patreon dot com slash beer in
Front for more details. The big beer

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news of the week is that the
Alchemist is coming up with a twentieth anniversary

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version of their iconic Heady Topper.
This will be a ten percent beer and

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it's clear it's only going to be
brewed four times this year or within the

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next twelve months, and it's curbside
only for twenty dollars a four pack.

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I need to get to Vermont.
This holiday season, Miller High Life is

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celebrating their one hundred than twentieth anniversary. They're teaming up with Lining Google for

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a Strawberry Lagger, which is inspired
by strawberries and champagne. This is only

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going to be available at the barrel
Yard. I think that's sponsored by Lining

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Google at the stadium where the Milwaukee
Brewers play. I don't know. They

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change their name. So wherever the
brewers play, there's a line in Google

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barrel Yard if you want to check
out the Miller High Life Strawberry Lagger.

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Finally, Boston Beer Company is coming
out with a new one. It's called

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the General Admission Brewing Company. This
is going to be non alcoholic, and

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it's going to be forty percent of
a non alcoholic beer and sixty percent fruit

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water. They're only going to test
this in certain markets early next year to

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see how this does. Alright,
The beer that I'm want to talk about

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now is a favorite. This is
the twenty twenty three Celebration Fresh Hop IPA

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from Sierra Nevada. It's only out
October, November, and December. If

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you look on social media when people
get this for the first time, everyone's

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posting a picture of their first celebration
of the year. I've been drinking this

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beer for more than twenty years.
I look forward to it whenever it comes

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out, and for a holiday beer, it doesn't have the spices that you

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normally would associate. You don't have
your nut meg, cinnamon, cranberry orange.

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It's just an old school ipa six
point eight percent alcohol. They use

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Cascade Centennial in Chinook cops that are
picked fresh and brewed right away to get

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that fresh hop flavor. So while
this is not a tread additional holiday beer,

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you could only get this around the
holidays. And I'm gonna bust open

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Sierra Nevada's Celebration Fresh Hop al Celebration
is such a good beer. They use

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some caramel malts in here, so
it has a little darker of a color

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than your traditional West Coast IPA.
Nice foam here. The smell is great.

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You get the nice piny citrus of
aromas here that you would get in

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your traditional old school West Coast IPA. That's great. I mean, it's

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perfection right there. You get the
big hop flavors, you get the bitterness

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at the back of the tongue.
It's all right there. It's a perfectly

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balanced beer that you get all of
the sensory notes all over, beginning,

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middle, and end. This is
the perfect beer. I mean, if

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you don't like IPAs, then eh, well fast forward to the next segment.

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But if you're an IPA fan,
you have to grab Sierra Nevada's celebration

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sixty five IBus on this. It's
just a tremendous beer. Yeah, that's

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It's just perfection and a glass right
there. Now. I got lucky.

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I picked this up at my cost
go for twenty nine ninety nine for a

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case of bottles in the cart.
Usually you could find it all over.

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You can get it at your chain
liquor stores, your bottle shops, your

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grocery stores. I have not seen
this in my grocery stores yet this year.

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I've seen it at bottles and cans
and I pick them up, you

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know, maybe two three weeks ago, but I haven't found it at my

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jewel or Mariano's where I normally go
grocery shopping. But luckily for me,

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Costco had it. So if there
is a Costco near you, you got

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to throw this one in the cart, especially thirty bucks for a case of

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twenty four to bucking a quarter of
beer for one of the best beers in

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America. If you like old school
IPAs, you can only get this,

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you know, October through December,
So pick this one up, put it

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in the cart. It is a
winner, all right. Next up is

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more of a traditional holiday Christmas ale. This is Great Lakes Christmas Ale.

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This is made with spices and honey. It has seven point five percent alcohol

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thirty IBus. Great Lakes Christmas Ale
has fresh honey, cinnamon, and ginger

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flavors. They also have a barrel
aged version that I tried at Faux Bab

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and you could pick that up in
four packs. I've had it, did

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a video view on it that is
spectacular as well. But this Great Lakes

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is always one of my go to's
every Christmas season, So let's bust open

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the Christmas Ale from Great Lakes Brewing
Company. The Great Lakes Christmas ale has

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a nice, beautiful color, nice
foam here, good carbonation. Yeah,

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you get all those spices in the
aroma, it really smells good, smells

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like Christmas as a wonderful aroma.
Yeah, that's just so good. It

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just tastes like a Christmas ale.
Should you get all of those flavors in

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there that you really only get this
time of year you're not drinking. I

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guess you could, but you're not
drinking a Christmas beer with the honey and

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the cinnamon and nutmeg and ginger and
all of those flavors. You're not really

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drinking though in August, so it
does remind you of the holiday season when

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you drink this. It is just
a really really good beer. Yeah,

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that's just fantastic. You can't go
wrong with that. Every year when this

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comes out, I definitely grab it. You could pick it up everywhere like

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here in Chicago. Not only can
you pick it up at your binnies,

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your chain liquor stores, you could
grab it at your grocery stores, bottle

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shops, you know, wherever you
find Great Lakes you're able to see this.

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And I normally get it at my
grocery stores because they usually have a

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promo when it comes out, but
like if you're in the Chicago area,

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you can go to any jewel and
pick up The Great Lakes Christmas Aale as

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soon as it comes out. It's
a phenomenal beer for the Christmas season.

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If you see it, definitely put
it in the cart. I think this

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is a great holiday beer. So
if you're into holiday beers, pick up

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the Great Lakes Christmas Ale. Hello
friends, this is an AI version of

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00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:15,840
John. Lauren has the power to
make me say anything she wants me to

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00:09:15,879 --> 00:09:18,639
say. She decided that I needed
to tell you to listen to the beard

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00:09:18,759 --> 00:09:22,399
Al podcast. It's the podcast where
we talk about two of the best things

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in the world, Beer and the
wonderful weird Al. She also wants me

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to tell you that she rules and
I drool. Lauren is awesome. I

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00:09:28,879 --> 00:09:33,200
smell like feet. Go listen to
the beard Al podcast, available wherever you

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get podcasts. Lauren is the best
at running the show. I'm just side

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talent. Lauren is so great.
The next one I'm gonna have is old.

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This is Saint Bernardduce the Christmas Ale
David making Beer. It's Saint Bernarduce.

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Since right after World War Two.
This Christmas Ale is a dark beer.

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They say it's full of wintery character
and flavors. This one's not light.

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It's nine point eight percent alcohol.
I like all the stuff that they

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have, so I'm gonna have this
one right now. This is the Saint

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Bernard Deuce Christmas Ale. I've never
seen this in a can before. So

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it has a nice sound. Oh, this is a really nice dark color.

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Good foam here, good three fingers
of foam. Oh, that smells

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really good. I get a lot
of like plum notes in this. It

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smells excellent. Yeah, got a
lot of like tartness, like plum stone

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fruit tartness in this. It's really
good. I don't now. They say

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it's full of wintry character. I
don't taste anything else that would make this

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like Christmas Eve. But it's really
good. It's a quadruple So, like

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I said, it's not low in
alcohol, but this one's delicious. Yeah,

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that's excellent. I could definitely see
this as a nice nightcap beer after

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you're doing your winter holiday traditions.
This would be good now. According to

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their website, that has a shelf
life of four years in a bottle.

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A year and a half in a
keg. So I'm assuming in a can

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you gotta be good for a good
four to five years in the can as

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well, So you could definitely age
one of these and see how this is.

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This is really good. So if
you see the Saint Bernard Deuce,

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I would definitely put one of these
in the cart. This is a nice,

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wonderful holiday beer. All right,
I'm gonna do a local one right

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now. This is from Trip Titch
Beer. They're out of Savoy Illini.

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This is. It came upon a
midnight meme. This is a black double

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IPA with spruce tips and Simco hops. Big fan of black IPAs, love

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Simco spruce tips. I've had some
that are really good. I've had some

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that just tastes like pine saal,
so I'm hoping this is gonna be one

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of the ones that are really good. I've heard good things about Trip Titch.

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I don't think I've ever had one
of their beers, so let's bust

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open. It came upon a midnight
meme. Oh, this is a really

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good poor nice foam, good color
to this. Yeah, us smell pine.

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I get that pine notes and not
in a bad way, not like

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pine saw. I get some good
pine notes out of the aroma. Now

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it smells good. That's good.
I get the pine, I get the

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Simcoe hops, I get the nice
dark malts in the black ipa. I

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think this is really good. The
pine is what hits me up front,

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and it's good. It's not overpowering. I think it blends well with the

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rest of the beer. So I
think this is a winner. I'm trying

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to see on the can what the
ibu's is and it doesn't say so we're

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just gonna guess. And it's a
double IPA. Doesn't taste boozy at the

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end. It tastes really good.
I think this is a well made beer.

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It's nice and balanced. You do
get the pine there and it goes

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well with the hops and the malt. I think this is good. Yeah,

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that's a winner. You see this
from trip Titch once again. They're

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out of Savoy, Illinois, and
you come across it came upon a midnight

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meme. I think you should definitely
put this one in the carts, all

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right. The last one I'm gonna
have is from Cruz Blanca. This is

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their Christmas ale called Festiva six point
zero percent alcohol. There's nothing on the

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can that tells you why this is
a Christmas ale or even on their website.

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But I enjoy everything Cruz Blanca puts
out, So let's crack open the

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Festiva. Festiva is a nice dark
amber color, very light ruby red,

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dark almost vienna lagger light color.
Smells really good. It smells like a

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beer. I'm not getting any Christmasy
notes side of the the aroma, but

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I mean it smells good. Oh
no, that's a Christmas beer that tastes

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very good, kind of similar to
like the Great Lakes Christmas where you get

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those cinnamon notes you get. I
think I'm getting a little ginger out of

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this, but no, the taste
on this is very good. I'm a

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big fan so far. Yeah,
that's good, nice local beer out of

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Chicago. I mentioned earlier. Everything
that I've had from Cruiz Blanca has been

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very good. I'm a big fan
of theirs. I don't talk enough about

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them on the show, and I
should. But this is really good.

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So if you're in the Chicago land
area and you're looking for a nice local

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beer for the Christmas or holiday season, you definitely need to check out Cruz

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Blanca's Festiva. Oh I thank you. For listening. That's going to wrap

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things up for this episode of Beer
in Front. Let me know what your

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holiday beer in front is. Next
week I'll be talking with some cider friends

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and we'll give you some ciders to
have during the holiday season. Have a

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great week, and remember sometimes the
beer in front of you is the best one yet