MadTree.. Oh MadTree. Throw the name MadTree out there and you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t like what the brewery is doing. They have been tearing it up lately with not only their draft releases in the taproom, their can announcements for the coming year (that we’ve heard so far) but the Trunk Series… oh my that trunk series!

They’ve thrown out some sure fire hits (see that first release with Axis Mundi) and some more risky flavors with the play on Pumpcan which turned out amazing. But after all this, I’m pretty sure what they’ve planned for Black Friday is going to knock it out of the park. If you’ve been watching their social media (follow them on Facebook and Twitter if you aren’t already) you’ll have seen this, but if not here’s something to drool over. They’re releasing a gift box with two bottles and a beer glass for all you glassware nerds like me.

The Glass for the Trunk Series

If you’re still one of those people who think that glassware doesn’t make a difference when you’re drinking a beer.. please… call me out and we’ll get together and I’ll show you the light. For those of you who are familiar with the changes that a proper glass can bring to your beer drinking, you’ll be happy to see a MadTree Trunk series branded Teku glass as part of the gift pack.

The Teku glass is a phenomenal choice for any beer that you want to boost your sensory experience of drinking, it pulls some of the aromatics that you might lose in a straight-sided glass and fires them straight into your nose while propelling the beer right to the sweet spot in the middle of your palate all the while. This, coupled with the elegant stemware presentation of the glass makes it a go-to for a lot of beer nerds.

Coffee Vanilla BBA Axis Mundi

When they originally released Coffee Vanilla Axis Mundi back during the summer, they stashed a bit of it away for a special occasion… being this gift pack. What was one of my favorite releases from the series so far is finding its way in the box in a very limited release to anyone who is willing to journey out of the house on the biggest shopping day of the year.

If you didn’t get your hands on a bottle last time, you’ll find a thick concoction of sweet and smooth bourbon barreled goodness. The coffee sits back on the palate while the vanilla dances with the oakiness from the barrel. It all finishes in a flourish of warm chocolatey booziness that begs you to not even set the glass on the table.

This beer is a work of art…in my opinion of course.

Are You Ready For Some Darkness?

This beer (in it’s original form…before it hit the barrels) had a flavor that ran the gamut from a warm toastiness to an earthy spiciness that almost reminded me of a dark tea. Some sweet chocolate flavors smoothed it all out into a well rounded, almost easy drinking Imperial Stout, which while it clocked in at almost 9% made it quite the dangerous drinking companion…but certainly worth it!

This is the first time this one will make it’s way out to the public, and rumor has it that coming off the bright tank, it’s tasting pretty amazing. The bottle reads:

Luring those in from the light with it’s silky chocolate, slight nuttiness, and smooth burning bourbon taste, the darkness eventually engulfs everything in it’s path. It’s easy to get lost into this abyss so be prepared because ready or not, here it comes.

If you can’t make it black friday…

I am literally chomping at the bit to get my hands on a bottle of this! If for some reason you aren’t able to make it out on Black Friday for this release, have no fear… they’re still going to have another release in December of just the Are You Ready For Some Darkness bottles. You can see the event on the calendar here, but keep in mind with that one there will be a strict limit of one bottle per person as they will only have 30 cases of this available for sale. It’s going to be a mad rush for you to snag yours… this isn’t an event for collectors or traders…or hunters… or whatever… this is an event for us drinkers.

Elsewhere Around Town…

There are few other fantastic Black Friday deals going on that you can find on the calendar (You can read more about some of the great events over at Queen City Fresh). Make your rounds… get your beers… don’t trample anyone for God’s sake… and keep being Gnarly, Drink Local Beer!