This Christmas Tree Cakes Beer Is Turning Heads
So, pastry stouts are definitely a thing these past few years, and seasonal beers have been big for a while, and of course the Christmas season is a natural fit for holiday treat/booze mashups. Now there are two ways to go about this: the first —and most popular — is to put the booze in the pastry, a la rum balls or the royal family's brandy, rum, and beer-soaked Christmas pudding (if you had a 24/7 paparazzi tail, you might feel the need for some extra-alcoholic desserts, as well). The second, of course, involves putting the sweet treats right into the booze, hence such beers as Hardywood's Gingerbread Stout, Campanology's Every Time Buche de Noel (via Beer Advocate), and Sycamore Brewing's Christmas Cookie Winter Ale (via Porch Drinking).
One of the latest entries in this not-quite-yet crowded field is Martin House Brewing Company's Christmas Tree Cakes, something that the Facebook post announcing it's Dec. 4 launch describes as a "sweet pastry beer with cake, lactose, and frosting." Although they don't come right out and name drop any particular brand, the one type of Christmas Tree cake that immediately comes to mind for most of us is something that rhymes with "brittle webby." Judging from comments such as "Dream. Come. True!!" and "Holy sh**!!! I need this beer," they've likely got another sellout on their hands despite this beer's only being for sale in the Fort Worth taproom.
Martin House is all about unique limited-release beers
This snack cake beer is hardly Martin House's first foray into brews seemingly destined for cult status. The only slightly odd year-round offering is a sour pickle beer, but anything goes with limited releases and seasonal options. They're getting ready to drop an Intergalactic Brownie Bars imperial stout (hmm, this also seems somehow familiar), and just before Thanksgiving they released their All Cheese Popcorn beer. (This was a holiday tie-in, named for those seasonal tins you pick up if you're in desperate need of a last minute gift and CVS is the only place open at 2 a.m.) Other November releases have included Texas Trash, a beer brewed with Chex, Cheerios, pretzel sticks, and pecans, and Bananas Foster, a beer with can art featuring what looks like Brad Pitt playing a televangelist but is actually the cellarman who loves the dessert that inspired this beer.
Of all Martin House's past offerings, the one that most deserves a comeback — preferably by the first week in February — is a brew from last October called Buffalo Wangz that, as its name implied, was brewed with Buffalo sauce (Frank's, of course). Forget the limited release, they need to pull whatever strings they can to make sure the only beer fit to accompany the Super Bowl's favorite snack food goes nationwide, stat. And while they're at it, we non-Texans wouldn't mind a taste of that Christmas Tree Cakes beer, either. Martin House, please make our holiday!