ABV: 10%

Today we are fighting off the winter chill with the warm embrace from Ommegang rightfully called Adoration, their limited edition dark winter ale. But first, a theatrical interlude!

A Frequent Scene at Parties

Me (holding a beer and making a beer opening motion with my hand): Do you have a church key?

Host: (blank stare and/or quizzical eyebrow cocked)

Me: A beer opener?

Host: Oh! Umm, yeah.. right here. You call it a “church key”?

Me: Because beer is my religion.

Fin.

Gentle people, this PorchDrinker has done gone and found religion. I invite you as well, to sit down with an Adoration and truly, bear witness to the immaculate fermentation.

This holiday season back at my parent’s house, I found myself starting in on a batch of ginger bread cookies. But as I measured out the first ingredient, something didn’t feel quite right. I paused, and then quickly realized the problem. I was lacking in a proper holiday libations to accompany my baking. I cracked one of my dad’s Ommegang Adoration Ales and dude, things got kind of spiritual. (Psst! Thanks Dad, for letting me pillage your Adoration stock.) Now let me give you folks a bit of advanced warning: be careful on your pour. My first pour got away from me resulting in way too much head. I nailed it on the second one, but this beer is pretty quick to head. My guess is that this is because it is fairly yeasty. The head is a light tan, with big fluffy air pockets, which dissipates quickly (even on my good pours) and leaves really minimal lacing on the glass. But fear not, my fellow beer disciples! The visual carbonation indicators contradict with the mouthfeel, as it stays carbonated and punchy throughout. The fizziness hits your upper lip first, then slides on in to the top of your mouth where the many yummy spices become apparent. Then it sort of slips around to the sides of your mouth in the back where it fills out and the citrus comes through.

Not just for the holidays, this beer promises to keep you warm the whole winter through. The Adoration’s color is like a deep burnt red-ochre that is thick and swirly with layers of complexity that hint at a metaphysical countenance. Picture yourself by a fire, stone hearth and all, bundled up in layers of blankets; that’s what the spices in this beer are like, warm and comforting. The coriander, cardamom and mace, combine together and layer up to fight off a drafty winter chill. Meanwhile the orange-peel and caramel notes come wafting in like your mom baking up a storm in the other room. All the spices make it pair really well with gingerbread cookie dough and probably even gingerbread cookies if you have the patience. The Ommegang website also lists grains of paradise among the ingredients; I don’t know exactly what that is, but I am pretty sure it is just DaVinci Code for ‘magic’.

This beer is worthy of not just its name, Adoration, but also exultation, coronation, and all the other religiously themed -ations. Even the label features three dudes, presumably of the cloth, reverently imbibing the sacrament. Have faith dear PorchDrinkers because Heaven, thy name is Ommegang.