This month's beer choice was hard to come by...there was a very limited amount available; 48 four packs to be specific! I took the morning off from work to head into Boston to the Harpoon Brewery for the release day by Harpoon of their special and limited edition of "Allston X-Mas". For those who do not not what that is, it's when all the young college students/working professionals need to vacate their rentals before the new school year starts to they can move back to their school dorms or wherever they come from and they need to get rid of all their furnishings from the summer place they stayed in. They leave their stuff on the curb so imagine the neighborhoods all covered with furniture and decor up for grabs, thus looking like Christmas. Allston is a very popular destination for young students and professionals to live in and thus this movement was born there.
I was determined to be one of the lucky ones to get my hands on a four pack...
& now my review:
I get home after a long day and night and I crack into an Allston X-Mas. Hmm, sharper than I was expecting upon first taste. Let me ease into it more. I’ll be honest, I started at a 7 then the more I drank the score was getting lower...I was waiting to get past the bitter hops to try and taste something more, maybe some citrus, maybe a spicy note of some sort but ultimately all I could taste was harsh bitter hops. Yes this is an India Pale Ale & most have a little bitter hit but a lot I’ve tried have more flavor and try a little harder to incorporate other flavors. This beer is true to its name “Allston X-Mas”. It takes like a bunch of left over crap thrown on the side of the road or in this case ingredients, thrown into a can and served up for us Boston schmucks to be biting at the bit for. I’ll take a Rec League over this any day & much like after a long day, this beer left me bitter & cranky. I score it 2 out of 10. Those 2 points are for the title & the can.
This was a bit disappointing because I love Harpoon and damn those pretzels are SO good there at their Seaport Brewery!
-Producer Lightning