Harpoon GRateful Harvest Cranberry Ale

Gobble Gobble, I wanted to squeeze this one out at the beginning of the week so that you all can have ample time to think about what beer you are planning to have at Thanksgiving this year. On the chopping block this year (no offense “Tom”) is Harpoon’s (Grateful Harvest Cranberry Ale). Now before I start to rip on this bean town brew, let me just say that it does give one dollar per every six pack to “your local food bank” and that is good no matter how bad I think the beer is. Let me start by saying that this beer when put into a glass has more head on it than Herman Munster. This thing is thick baby and the head just hangs there like sea foam atop a rusty red ale ocean. I cannot taste any hint of cran at all. What I do taste is hops to the einth degree. Which traditionally ale beers have the hops taste as a sort of signature of the brew. However, if you are going to call it a cranberry ale the drinker should be able to taste the cranberry somewhere in the beer. Slapping a Thanksgivingesk sort of labile on a box with a smug looking turkey with pint glass in hand and saying that it is some sort of quintessential (insert your ideal Thanksgiving ingredient of choice) ale, does not a Thanksgiving ale make. This is not a fair representation of what an ale called cranberry ale should taste like. The bitter hops taste rides rough shot over and cranberry taste that might have beer there. Don’t be suckered in by the beers bio on the bottom of the box. I can tell you from experience, that the beer taste nothing like the box wishes it did. Perhaps this beer will go better with the true Thanksgiving meal. You know, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, CRANBERRIES!!!!!! Of which I am happy to say that this year I will be participating in for the first time in a long time (thanks unique extended family situations). So win louse or draw, I will reevaluate this beer during my Thanksgiving this year and report to you in the day of or soon there after on how the beer went with food. On a family relations note, this beer has a ABV (alcohol by volume) of 5.9% so if you need a little liquid chill the Fa-la-la-la out to get through holiday time with your Fa-la-la-la family then this is the beer for you my friend. just sit back, relax and crack open some of this “crantastic ale” and let the fact that your in-laws can be self-riches hypocrite save the world DB’s slide right down the back of your reclined lazy-boy. Because just like a hangover, it will all come to an end soon enough, but in the mean time, you just got to sit back and take in all in stride. So stick that in your cornucopia and drink it.