The holiday season is upon us and what goes hand in hand with the holidays? Hanging with family! What goes hand in hand with hanging with family? LOTS AND LOTS OF DRINKING. And as you know, the 108 favors the great beers from our buds at Goose Island. In addition to the BCBS (Bourbon County Brand Stout) releases there is a Christmas IPA that is beloved by all the 108’ers….

Christmas IPA is a malt-forward IPA using 6 different hops throughout the process. Moderate citrus and pine notes balanced with caramel malt on the palate dry-hopped with Meridian, Chinook, and Cashmere. It’s got a bit of an old-school feel on the malt side with caramel malt and a lovely red hue to go with the classic kettle hop backbone. Nicely balanced and dry, this little number dons a big fruity aroma.

From The Goose Island Website….

Plus the can is festive AF for 2021…..

During the past year, two of my old coolers kinda bit the dust. My original house cooler has been kinda on it’s last legs for a few years but the stickers on it are far too valuable to me to get rid of it. On Opening Day Farmer Matt went to move our “new” cooler and the handle broke off! Later the hinges split in two and the lid fell right the fuck off. I debated getting some new hinges but it seemed to still work so I didn’t. Insert cheap joke here.

I have been cooler shopping for a while but have no idea which one to get. Do I want a Yeti style? Rtic? Or go with the standard Igloo? Then what fucking size do I need? Buying a cooler is a fucking chore TBH as they are either too big or not big enough. Like, I don’t need a coffin sized cooler like ‘Loaf, but I need something bigger than the personal cooler that holds like 18 cans and resembles what I assume King Nom takes his lunch in to work. So hopefully someday soon I will have a fancy cooler to show off, but should I toss my old ones away? The answer is NO. And here’s why….

Spending some time on the west coast one thing that I really missed about the midwest, especially around the holidays, was leaving the beer outside to stay cold. That’s right, we’d store a case or 30pk right outside the door and it’d be cold and ready to crush on the regular. Now, if you plan on doing this the whole winter, having a dedicated cooler is key, and that’s where my broken coolers come in.

Now, I’m not even talking just using the coolers for beer storage. You know during the holidays food storage in the fridge is at a premium. Especially when people are staying at your home and have to have “their things” up in there too. Sometimes you can store that shit right outside, but sometimes you can’t because it might freeze. So if you don’t have an outdoor only cooler, well, you’re fucked sir. Leftover meat? Outside cooler. Leftover sides? Outside cooler. Ice Cream? Outside cooler. Leftover veggie plate? Fucking garbage.

Let me tell you why the lid is key……WIND CHILL MOTHERFUCKER! While the air temp might be a brisk 40, it could be 22 with that wind chill. Your beer is gonna freeze and then explode if it get’s too cold. So you toss that broken lid on there and you’re protected. Comprende?

So in conclusion, don’t toss that broken cooler just yet. Get a new one for Christmas but keep that old one outside and enjoy the natural way of keeping your Goose Island beer cold. It just makes sense.

-MSS