7 minute read
Pick Your 6: halloween candy
By Lewis Smith
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Once a series gets to the third installment, one is tempted to get a little adventurous with the format in an effort to keep interest. Either that, or they just do it in 3D. Since the latter option isn’t available to us, we here at Carolina BrewScene decided to pivot a little for our third time round. After our first installment of Ales from the Crypt detailed horror icons, then followed with ghost stories, this time, we’re doing things different: we’re bridging Halloween fun from the realm of childhood to the realm of adulthood. That’s right — this time we’re pairing six classic Halloween candies with six beers. Spooky fun will, no doubt, ensue!
THE CANDY: Candy Corn
I’ve always felt like candy corn is one of those dividing lines between childhood and adulthood. When you’re a kid, you can’t get enough of it — you eat huge handfuls of it at a time and stick them on the ends of your teeth to pretend you have fangs, etc. Then, at a certain age, you eat a single piece of it and you’re asking yourself why you’re chewing a sicklysweet Yankee Candle. I can’t say your hair immediately starts going gray once you experience this moment, but I’m also not not saying that.
THE BEER: Surf Wax IPA (Burial Beer Company, Asheville)
From North Carolina’s much-beloved Burial comes this West Coast IPA, which is … not bad. It’s hoppy as hell, of course (comes with the territory) but has a gentler, sweeter finish, which makes for a more pleasant drinking experience, and a welcome break from my usual experiences with hyper-hoppy IPAs, where it feels like I’ve tried to chug an entire Douglas fir tree. I don’t think I’ve found the perfect Burial beer for me just yet, but I found this eminently crushable.
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THE CANDY: Smarties
Smarties were some of the most highly-prized Halloween candy back in the day because they’re basically 99 percent sugar and 1 percent some vague tart flavoring. A kid who’d gotten particularly lucky on Halloween could use a surplus of Smarties to barter for higherticket candy from a sibling or a friend and also prepare themselves for a career later on in life as a commodities trader.
Either that, or just hoard all of them and go around with a sour face and a sugar high that lasts until Thanksgiving.
No, not the ones you get from the CBD store — those are actually edible. Mary Janes are — well, if there’s such a thing as candy that doesn’t try very hard, Mary Janes is candy that doesn’t try at all. They were basically an inedible lump of glop that can only be chewed by those with much grit and determination. Despite this, I’m told people enjoyed these, and when they tell me this, I usually stare at them for a good long time as if to determine where and when their lives went so badly wrong.
Well, it wasn’t quite the toffee overload I imagined it would be, but this special offering from our pals at Carolina Brewing was quite a ride all the same — there’s a roast flavor all the way through it, with a sweet finish. You can get notes of toffee (along with some caramel and chocolate) flavoring through the sip, and the overall flavor feels somewhere between a coffee porter and Crunch N’ Munch. It’s not bad at all, but don’t go in expecting something overly gooey and sweet. In this, it is much like the Mary Jane. But far easier to chew.
THE BEER: Margarita Gose (Appalachian Mountain Brewery, Boone)
This was far too perfect a match to pass up. This selection of AMB brings the tartness, with a hint of the sharp flavor you’d expect from something named after margaritas, but finishes out with a nice sweetness that makes it very crisp and pleasant to drink.
A nice refreshing beer perfect for late summer, or any time really. This was my first taste of AMB’s offerings, but this was a solid start from them, for sure.
THE CANDY: Atomic Fire Balls
For those of you who wondered what we did before “eat the ghost pepper” challenges, meet the Atomic Fire Ball. The great thing about Atomic Fire Balls comes in big bags for cheap. A few bucks gets you a lot of long lasting cinnamonny mouth-burning fury that you can hand out one or two at a time to unsuspecting trick-or-treaters.
THE BEER: Hot Pistol Chocolate Raspberry Habanero Stout (Noda Brewing, Charlotte)
This was an utterly crazy mixture that if you had told me prior to starting I would have imagined would be a disaster on the palate, but it’s quite amazing. A rich sweet initial chocolate taste yields a little tartness, followed by the peppery fire of the habaneros, finishing with a little sweet and savory chocolate at the end. It’s amazing how perfectly Noda managed to hit every note, but it’s a very impressive effort from them. It’s not what I’d call crushable (unless you have a cast-iron gut, of course), but if you like intricate tastes, this is worth a look.
THE CANDY: Mary Jane THE BEER: Chapel Hill Toffee Stout
(Carolina Brewery, Chapel Hill)
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THE CANDY: Hershey's Miniatures
If ever you despair for the state of democracy, I ask you to consider the beautiful plurality of the Hersey's Miniature's bag. An assortment of the most popular candies in the Hershey chocolate galaxy, the Miniatures contain, plenty of plain ol' chocolate for the middle of the road folks, a few Mr. Goodbar's for those that like nuts in their chocolate, a couple Krackles for those eccentric souls who like a little crispy in their cocoa, and about four Hershey's Special Darks, for those highbrow discerning types who want nothing but the best. The point is, there's something for everyone, assuming everyone at least loves some kind of chocolate.
THE BEER: Midnight Brue Stout (Bruprint Brewing, Apex)
Robert Frost was acquainted with the night, and I am wellacquainted with the powerful dark magic that is Brueprint’s Midnight Brue. A magnificent American Stout that pours dark and has rich, roast flavoring throughout before finishing with some syrupy sweetness.
It’s a perfect stout for those times when you want big stout flavor, but maybe you have plans for the rest of the day and can’t afford to sit out the next few hours while you recover from your brain feeling like someone clubbed it with a Volkswagen.
THE CANDY: Candy Necklace
The candy necklace was like the winning lottery ticket on Halloween night. Sure, the candy was hard and barely flavorful, but in terms of sheer candy-to-treat-volume ratio, the candy necklace was some high-tier stuff, even if it was more for show than for feasting upon.
Should you find the concept of a candy necklace to be ostentatious and inapplicable to a craft beer magazine, I invite you to count the number of pretzel necklaces at the next beer festival you attend.
Interesting little beer, this. Not QUITE the sugary overload promised by the name, but there is a through-line of sweetness from the first sip to the finish, but there’s also some hints of roast flavor and a hint of malt and nuttiness was detected as well. I can’t say the effect was a one-to-one match with eating an actual cinnamon bun, but it wasn’t bad enjoyed on it own merits, really. Legal Remedy’s become a favorite brewery of mine thanks to their deftness with flavor profiles, and this was no exception. I’m looking forward to sampling more of their beers. And there you go — a well-filled pillowcase full of candy and beer to close out this hallowed evening, and not a hidden razor blade in the bunch! Join us next time, when we cast yet another hex (in that there’s six of them. We’re not witches — we don’t have the hats for that) on your pure brewing satisfaction!
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