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Breakin' free from Santa's Workshop: The Mad Elf Party
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Breakin' free from Santa's Workshop: The Mad Elf Party
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| The elf freed from his bottle. |
| tröegs.com |
Celebrate your Friday evening liberation from worklife with the craziest little gnome of all: The Mad Elf, by Tröegs Brewing Company. The Northeast's über-beer destination, The Grey Lodge, will be hosting their annual Elf madness event, pouring both 2007 and fresh 2008 Mad Elf on draft. Trögester Nick Johnson will also be on hand, selling Mad Elf merch and generally contributing to the XXXmas-themed frenzy.
Mad Elf is a garnet-red holiday ale, brewed with spicy yeast and very little hops. The brew is sweetened with honey, helping it to achieve its monstrous 11 percent ABV, and flavored with tart west coast cherries. It is a limited-release seasonal beer with a completely insane cult following. Mad Elf fanatics start hounding bartenders about it before Thanksgiving, and they don't let up until the last drops are drunk, and the last drunks are dropped — usually on their faces, early in the new year.
Ed Yashinsky, Tröegs' brewery manager, shared the differences between an aged keg of the Elf and the fresh 2008 batch. "Though the recipe is identical year to year," Yashinksy said, "the nature of the beer — the high alcohol, the tart cherries and the complexion of the yeast — it will change over time. In the fresh 2008 Elf, the nose is mostly cherries, peppery yeast is the main flavor and the alcohol is well-hidden. As the beer ages, the cherry flavor starts to dominate, and the alcohol peeks through as well."
So get into the spirit: Not only is Elf on tap at the Grey Lodge, but 12- and 22-ounce bottles are available from Penn Distributors in Philadelphia for gifting.
The Grey Lodge, 6235 Frankford Ave, 215-825-5357, greylodge.com
Penn Distributors, Inc., 401 Domino Lane, 215-467-0300
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