Day 13 of the 5th Annual Advent-ure Calendar

Day 13: Tröegs Brewing Mad Elf Ale

This boozy little guy always seems to make it on our list even though it’s one beer we normally wouldn’t pick to drink at a bar or at home. From the brewery: “The holidays at Tröegs start with our inner Mad Elf momentarily taking over the brew deck. So blame “him” for this cheerful ruby red creation reminiscent of ripened cherries, raw honey and cocoa with notes of cinnamon, clove and allspice.” Oh, we’ll blame somebody for this alright.

Reflections

Beard & Broad
Beard:

  Tröegs indeed makes a good beer
But syrup I can’t handle
All drunk and no cheer

Broad: This is for sure, the worst beer on the list so far. I just cannot drink this. It’s heavy, boozy, sweet, sticky and syrupy. It’s just not for me. It’s extremely strong and I get some notes of honey (which I don’t like). I actually don’t get any cherry taste at all. I can’t write anything else about this beer, it’s just eck.

Adam & Alex
Adam: Mad elf, you wild animal, you. This beer is basically a holiday boilmaker. Honey and cherries come through this syrupy glass of booze. It’s something I enjoyed in grad school when I wanted to get bombed. Now.. one is enough. It’s warming and tasty but one is enough

Alex: Holy booze water, Batman.  Mad Elf is super strong.  I don’t dislike it by any means but I definitely couldn’t partake in more than one in a sitting.  I can taste the cherries and honey and a little bit of spice.  If nothing else it will definitely warm you up.  I feel like I only drink these once and while because they can really sneak up on you.

Scott & Christa
Scott: Unfortunately, this beer just isn’t for me. Mad Elf is one of the better label characters I’ve seen and the “handcrafted by the Tröegs brothers” in the glass of the bottle are awesome touches, but the flavor just isn’t what I’m into. Let me clarify, it’s not a bad beer, it’s very unique in flavor with its sweetness profile, it’s just not my taste.

Christa: Mad Elf is definitely the most unique beer we’ve tried, brewed with honey and cherries. I appreciate when breweries deviate from the norm usually, some of my favorite beers are: blonde stouts, hazy IPAs, anything infused with cucumber. I like some variety here and there but this beer isn’t it. It’s too sweet, sickly sweet even. If reminds me of cough syrup but I think that’s the risk with cherry—we are all deeply scarred by cherry cough syrup.

Tony & Megan
Tony: JOY TO THE WORLD!!! …..Megan and I are getting married tomorrow!!!! So who the heck cares that this beer is not good 😜….Its got a red ale type color. It mentions being brewed with cherries and I think that might be whats causing the unpleasant flavor. Everyone’s taste buds are different, but for me this one is not enjoyable. Its 11% so probably would only take me a couple to get over it haha, but this one will likely be among my least favorite…..Now if you’ll excuse me I gotta go get married!

Megan: Hmmmmm I think we struck some bad luck on this Friday the 13th. I know we’re supposed to get the aroma of holiday spices but the only thing I’m getting is the cherry and it’s not a true fruit taste. It’s like some sort of imitation flavor that’s supposed to be cherry but comes off more like soapy bath water. I don’t know, maybe I’m missing something but it’s a pass on this one.

Brad & Heather
Brad: I saw “cherries” on the label and already knew what my taste buds would think. I don’t like cherries and I don’t like beer that has cherries as a dominate flavor. The abv is intriguing but I don’t think I could drink two of these back to back simply because, as you guessed it, I don’t like cherries.

Heather: I feel like I used to like this beer, but now it doesn’t appeal as much to me. It’s a whole lot of (strong) flavors. Not entirely unpleasant, but Mad Elf is a bit thick (heyyy, must be the hon-ayyy!🍯). I appreciate the Belgian undertones but a bit more subtlety would have gone a long way with this one. Also, two of these and I’d be down for the count.