Just a few days until Christmas. Thanks to Jack for suggesting a Christmas beer post.
And thanks to the Pint Night crew for their favorite Christmas beers. Below are their selections.
DBear (homebrewer extraordinaire) has a couple of suggestions: Mad Elf and Celebration. Troegs Mad Elf is a cherry-flavored tripel ale, a winter season staple. It is delicious but like all Belgian tripels, it is at least 9% ABV. Sierra Nevada’s Celebration is another stunning winter beer, a fresh hop holiday IPA. Where other holiday beers lean on spices and sweetness, this is just an exceptional IPA with caramel and malt sweetness rarely found in Christmas beers.
Z picks Shiner Holiday Cheer “because I can’t drink mad elf all day and be presentable to the in-laws.” Holiday Cheer is a peach Dunkelweizen with roasted pecans. Surprisingly delicious.
Sully’s list of Christmas Ales includes Mad Elf, Celebration, and Krampus. His list looks strikingly similar to DBear’s with Krampus thrown in. Krampus is a high ABV homebrew of mine (Warren) which has aged well, giving off cherry notes from years in the beer cellar.
Jim (another super homebrewer) picks Mad Elf, Southern Tier’s 2XMAS, and Shmaltz Brewing Hanukkah Beer. 2XMAS is one I’ve never had the pleasure of tasting. Southern Tier, a brewery of never subtle flavors, makes a double spiced Christmas Ale spiced with “figs, orange peels, cardamom, cinnamon, clove and ginger root.” Shmaltz Brewing (the makers of He’Brew) has a new beer – Hanukkah Beer – advertised as Golden Jelly Doughnut Pastry Ale brewed with Raspberry and Cherry. It sounds intriguing!
Hopnose (vendor of hops scented air fresheners) suggests 3 Christmas beers: Sam Smith Organic Chocolate Stout, Troegs Mad Elf, and Stone Enjoy By 01-01-21. Stone’s Enjoy By series are big citrusy, floral IPAs. Stone takes the freshness of these IPAs so seriously that they actually added the expiration date to the name of the beer. With at least 10 varieties of hops, these hoppy ales are reputed to be delicious.
Warren (mediocre homebrewer) has 3 Christmas goto beers: Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome Ale, Anderson Valley Brewing Winter Solstice, and Samuel Smith’s Organic Chocolate Stout. Winter Welcome Ale strays from the traditional spiced sweet Christmas beer offering a toasty, caramel spin with just enough alcohol (6%) to remind you it’s a beer without putting you down under. When you first pour a Winter Solstice, the smell of vanilla hits you full on. The taste is sweetness wrapped in Christmas spices, dominated again by vanilla, a subtle, drinkable holiday beer. Organic Chocolate Stout is just a super chocolate stout, well-balanced with creamy cocoa flavors, perhaps my favorite of all the chocolate beers. At 5% ABV, it is extremely drinkable.
Beer Reads
And because it is Saturday, I’ve included a few beer reads:
Larsblog, The True Meaning of Christmas. Thanks to DBear for this gem.
InsideHook, 12 Christmas Beers to Help You Forget About 2020. This is a great list but funny how we didn’t include any of these Christmas beers. Thanks to Jack for this link.
Merry Christmas!
Warren