I love Christmas - and I've always liked Christmas beers. For many years I collected and obsessed like Gollum (Smeagal), whispering "precious" over my ever growing cellar of vintage Anchor Steam bottles. I also drank Sierra Nevada Celebration, and I broke out the Samuel Smith Winter Warmer, and offerings from Samuel Adams and even the big Miller High Life and Heineken bottles that were only on the shelves for the holidays.
However, my Anchor Steam bottles were the prize possession though - cellar-able and tasty. I loved to bring them out for guests from Thanksgiving through New Years. Christmas beer is usually a seasonal beer that typically contains rich malts and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. It also usually has a higher alcohol content - to provide that warming effect. Common styles often include darker beers like stouts (my other favorite this time of year is Brooklyn Chocolate Stout - the second beer Garrett Oliver developed for that brewery), porters, and old ales, as well as Belgian-style ales, with some variations incorporating other ingredients like honey, orange peel, or dried fruit.
With the closing of Anchor steam (tears on my pillow - truly), I wallowed in darkness during the holidays, suffering in silence as I drank wine and whiskey. No one cried for me. Then I rediscovered Troeg's Mad Elf and the crowning achievement Mad Elf and Mad Elf Grand Cru.
Mad Elf is a Belgian styled ale made with blend of sweet and tart cherries, Pennsylvania honey, and chocolate malt. The resulting ale sparkles ruby red, and explodes with real cherry flavor (not chemically induced), and notes of cinnamon, clove and allspice. Of course, nothing succeeds like success. So Troegs topped that by making an Imperial Stout with a Belgian yeast, local honey, chocolate malt, and Pennsylvania Balaton cherries. This is a huge, chewy, dark Bavarian chocolate cake of a beer. Tart cherries and chocolate combine with notes of vanilla, and a nice touch of Christmas spice. One of the most exceptional stouts around. This is my new Gollum-esque obsession.
Obsession over the years....
Over the intervening years I have noticed, no doubt like you, the giants swarm of holidays brews now crowding the shelves. It is an ever growing army of these releases - dessert stouts, winter warmers, and the like Peppermint and gingerbread seem to lead the marching band of red, white, and green cans. Interesting to note - Winter Warmers tended to have higher ABVs, but in today's market, the holiday offerings tend to be more toward more normal beer like numbers - going with, and not bucking, the current trend of lower alcohol offerings. He's a few of the holiday releases I have seen and tasted.
Let's begin with a few of my favorite classics. Sierra Nevada Celebration is a classic winter warmer. That and the Samuel Adams Winter Lager date back to the early says of craft beer. Classics.
Frog Alley Holiday Ale is a very good offering. A light, easy drinking beer, with notes of creamy egg nog, and a light touch of classic Christmas spices. Not super sweet. A very well balanced beer.
Southern Tier Brewing, located along the Pennsylvania border, but in New York, offers their Chestnut Praline. Sounds a bit too sweet? Not really. It's Imperial Ale with warm buttery note of toasted chestnuts, swirled with caramel, and offers a touch of coffee on the end. A very nice touch of praline and beer. Pretty damned tasty.
This dark brown Imperial Stout explodes with freshly baked sugar cookies topped with vanilla bean frosting. Not the kind of thing I would normally like. But its actually very well made.
The seemingly ubiquitous Hardywood Holiday Gift Pack from Virginia's craft brewing scene, has dominated the market this years with a slew of beers available in a festive case pack. There's a Gingerbread Stout (dark brown and packed with Christmas spices), a Chocolate Peppermint Stout, Fluffy GBS milk stout made with marshmallows, and Christmas Morning a coffee/milk stout with big notes of vanilla.
WINTER WARMERS
Winter Warmers continue to rule. For the traditionalists, here's a few craft offerings that are making their mark this season.
The newest Winter offering from Samuel Adams is their Winter Ale (as opposed to their classic Winter Lager). A traditional styled holiday offering that balances orange peel with holiday spices. Easy drinking. Not too high in alcohol.
Lone Pine from Maine offers a very tasty Winter Carnival White Ale features orange peel and coriander and other spices to make this flavorful beer.
An easy drinking, not too heavily flavored winter warmer. A session winter warmer from Narragansett.
Prison City Nutcracker Ale is a wonderful, rich, malty winter warmer with just the right amount of spice, from New York State.
A farmhouse-styled Biere de Noel from Connecticut's Two Roads is a well made winter warmer perfect for any table. Rich and well made.
Beer Tree Brew's Flannel Lined Everything is brewed with blackstrap molasses and spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, clove, and dried orange peel. It's lighter than you might think. Easy drinking. Not over powering. For those that like a slight tinge of Christmas spice, and who don;t like stouts.
Buffalo's Thin Man Brewing's Kranberry Kringle is a cranberry wit beer. Easy drinking. A nice note of fruit. Won't be enough for fruit sour lovers, but a lovely end of meal beer to delight exhausted revelers.
