Nor'easter's Coming

Cartoon stolen from MetroWest Daily News

The store is gonna be nuts today. Snow is expected to pile up the streets of beautiful Boston and everyone needs to stock up on the essentials. And beer. Just remember to be well prepared. Mixed 12 packs are an excellent start. They let you try some different things and they won't let monotony set in while you're stuck watching hours and hours of No Reservations and Harry Potter. There are three that I'd strongly recommend that truly have an unbelievable mix of beers that you may have never had before, hell, beers I've only had once in my life.
Magic Hat's new mix pack contains not one, but two fairly unique beers. First, a gose they called Saint Saltan, What's a Gose? A Gose is the German answer to the Belgian Witbier, an ale made with Coriander and instead of some sweetness like the typical witbier, Goses are spiced with salt, giving it a beautiful tartness that is an excellent change of pace from the usual hop bombs that are all the rage these days. Now Magic Hat used a San Francisco Lager Yeast strain instead of an ale yeast, so this beer is crisper and cleaner than the other Gose you may have unknowingly had recently, Sam Adams 26.2 marathon beer that showed up last Patriots Day at some excellent local bars.
The next unique beer in Magic Hats 12 pack is Pistil, a beer brewed with Dandelion petals. Not quite a Gruit, this beer packs a lovely grassyness that goes along with some light hop bitterness from Apollo hops. Pack it in with Magic Hat's #9 pale ale and their newest brew, Ticket to Rye, a Rye-P.A. and you'll have a good mix of beers to ride out the storm.

If Magic Hat's fruity background and sometimes wacky beers are too off putting for you, let's head south to Maryland and Flying Dog Brewery's newly designed mix pack. I've long loved Flying Dog for their Aspen, Colorado roots and one of my favorite writers of all time, Hunter S. Thompson's quotes being plastered over their 6-packs and them in turn brewing Gonzo Imperial Porter to help build a cannon to blast his ashes into the air after he took his life February 20, 2005. The real problem is that their Mixed 12-pack was always garbage, with no rotating seasonal or anything exciting in their but the same old thing. Tire Bite, a nice Kolsch but really nothing to write home about. Doggie Style Pale Ale, a great pale ale that has a much maltier backbone than some of it's counterparts, making it a much nicer cold weather pale than I expected, and Snake Bite IPA that continues the trend with big bitter hops and a very full flavor. But none of these beers are why I love the current edition of Flying Dogs mix pack. Flying Dog Pearl Necklace, an Oyster Stout! A stout brewed with oysters strait out of the Chesapeake Bay. Briny and chocolatey, an excellent mix of salty sea water and sweet malts. Pearl Hops round out both the beer and the name making it an amazing beer to be stuck in the house with. We all know that beer and oysters makes for a good night, so get them all in one place.

Okay, so you're not in the mood to get experimental. Fine, I'll talk about Hops. The last 12 pack you can sit in the house with and kill hours without getting bored is Sam Adams Hopology 12 pack. Two bottles each of six different Hoppy beers.
The Latitude 48 and Whitewater IPA are regularly available and are solid beers, nothing special but certainly good beers. Dark Depths might be the worst beer I've ever tasted, so give it to a neighbor or  the dog or whoever. After that, here are my three favorite in the batch.
Tasman Red, a red IPA made with Galaxy and Topaz hops grown in Tasmania. The hops are very floral and it drinks with a heavy malt backbone. The hops also have a serious bite on the tongue going down.
Third Voyage is a double IPA made entirely with Cascade hops, and if you love a west coast style IPA, this is the beer you'll love. Pine and Citrus. Citrus and Pine. Some sweetness in the malt but this beer is all about the hops, and they're so bitter and fresh at the same time.
Six different hops and a Belgian yeast strain make for Grumpy Monk, a Belgian style IPA that's rich with clove and banana in the nose and all over the palate. Hops aren't anywhere near as strong as the previous two beers but the bitterness is there, as it should be if you're cooking with six hop varietals.
So avoid Cabin Fever by mixing up your beer and keeping it fresh.