Tröegs Mad Elf Is Back To Spice Up The Holidays

If you were to rate the beer styles available in each season, you’d have a tough time beating the choices released in fall and winter.

While the warmer months are dominated by IPAs, pale ales, lagers, pilsners, wheat beers, and other lighter brews crafted for their refreshing, easy-drinking nature, the winter is a time to get maltier, bolder, and up the alcohol content as well as the flavor.

Autumn and winter are the seasons of brown ales, stouts, porters, and potent, warming winter seasonals. Not only are there certain, darker, warmer beers scattered throughout the colder months but there are also limited-release, yearly offerings that many beer drinkers look forward to. One of the most eagerly anticipated fall/winter beer releases is Tröegs Mad Elf.

First released in 2002, Tröegs Mad Elf Ale is, in the simplest terms, a holiday ale flavored with cherries and honey. But it’s so much more than that. Released every winter for more than twenty years, this iconic offering is adorned with a mischievous-looking elf. One look at the bottle or can and you have a pretty good idea of what you’re about to get into.

“It’s a beer that’s become synonymous with the season,” co-founder Chris Trogner says. “We like to say that it’s not the holidays until you’ve had your first Mad Elf.”

Brewed with chocolate malt, Munich malt, Pilsner malt, and spicy Belgian yeast, it gets its naughty flavor from the addition of sweet and tart cherries including Bing, Lambert, Van, Royal Ann, and Montmorency. Pennsylvania honey adds extra sweetness to this beloved brew. And it’s not just a touch of honey either. Tröegs sources 25,000 pounds of local wildflower honey from The Happy Beekeeper in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

The result is a tart, sweet, fruity, complex beer with notes of cinnamon sugar, clove, allspices, and other gentle, warming spices. All in all, it tastes like the holidays in a pint glass.

“Mad Elf captures so many things about the holidays for so many people,” Trogner says. “And not just beer lovers. A lot of people who typically don’t drink beer have a special connection with Mad Elf.”

And while Tröegs Mad Elf is a holiday favorite, you don’t have to wait until December to drink it. It’s already available in 12-ounce bottles, cans, and on tap wherever Tröegs beers are found. Grab a sixer or order a draft. There’s no better way to get started than getting into the holiday spirit early.

To learn more about Mad Elf, including its origins and brewing process, please visit the Tröegs blog.