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Great Beer: Stock up on Hog Cabin for that next storm

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Great South Bay Brewery's Hog Cabin. (Credit: BJ Gamboa)

BREAD! MILK! EGGS!  BREAD! MILK! EGGS!

BREAD! MILK! EGGS!

Hey, there’s a storm coming!  Did you get your bread, milk and eggs? 

I don’t get why people need bread, milk and eggs whenever a storm rolls through.

I tend to have eggs pretty frequently but I’ll bet I can last 48 hours without them. Milk and bread? Are we in kindergarten? Be honest with yourself while you prep for harsh weather. Skip the supermarket and head to your favorite beer distributor and get what you really need: a fine, snow-day beer!

Hog Cabin (maple bacon porter) from Great South Bay Brewery is my elixir of choice.

A Great American Beer Fest gold medal winner, Hog Cabin is billed as a “smoked porter with notes of maple syrup and bacon.” Don’t let that freak you out as it is nowhere as smoky as a German rauchbier, nor does it taste like liquefied meat. Hog Cabin is disappointingly mild when it comes to those elements but instead is a chocolaty, well-balanced and highly drinkable porter.

There was mostly a powdered cocoa-type nose with some sticky sweetness in the finish (the maple?) and a little lingering bitterness to boot. I can only assume this is the bacon aspect but it reminded me more of black coffee than anything else. 

At 6.5% ABV it shouldn’t wreck you, and yet serve to keep you warm during the coming storm

Hey, did you know that porter got its name because it was a beer created to slake the parched, hard-working porters in England? You’re not hefting trunks and luggage onto the Queen Mary but snow shoveling qualifies as back-breaking, thirst-inducing work! Hog Cabin is a perfect post-shoveling beer!

Roasty, toasty and flavorful, pair this with homemade reuben sandwiches. The maltiness will be an awesome contrast to the salty, hot corned beef and the sharp acidity of the ‘kraut.

Skip Home Depot. You know it’ll be a mob scene. And bail on King Kullen.

Unless, of course, you’re getting the fixins for homemade Reubens …

Stay warm out there everybody!


BJ Gamboa is a craft beer aficionado who lives in Patchogue and does his best to drink Main Street dry. See more of his writing at beerzombie.blogspot.com.

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