THE 12 BEERS OF Christmas
For nearly 20 years, I’ve been the blind-panel tasting director for the Celebrator Beer News, and I’ve sampled more than 500 seasonal holiday beers during that time. These are the dozen that consistently capture the spirit of the holidays — I call them ...
1. Anchor Brewing’s Our Special Ale (also known as Christmas Ale)
One of the first modern holiday beers, Anchor began making this beer in 1975, with a slightly different recipe — and different tree label — each year since. This is my go-to holiday meal beer. This time, the label sports a Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) and the specific beer recipe is, as always, a secret. So part of the fun of trying this beer is trying to figure out what’s in it. I’m tasting strong cocoa and pine notes.
2. Sierra Nevada Brewing’s Celebration Fresh Hop IPA
Another early holiday classic, first brewed in 1981, these days it’s brewed as a fresh hop beer, i.e., it uses un-kilned hops fresh from the hopyard, which gives it an intensely hoppy nose. Using three hop varieties — Cascade, Centennial and Chinook — the results are redolent of citrus and pine, a Christmas tree in a glass.
3. Lagunitas Brewing’s Brown Shugga’
Brown Shugga’s history is my favorite happy accident, a mistake that created a great beer. When a batch of beer went wrong in the fall of 1997, owner Tony Magee got a phone call in the middle of the night. In an effort to fix the beer, Magee sent his employees out to buy every package of brown sugar from every 24-hour grocery in the Petaluma area. The result is a complex, sweet and spicy beer that’s perfect with sugar cookies.
4. Brouwerij St. Bernardus’ Christmas Ale
While there are plenty of great imported beers, especially from Belgium, this Belgian quadrupel consistently topped the annual Beer Celebrator tasting. It’s meant for sipping: strong, complex and thick with molasses sweetness, apricots and mint.
5. Deschutes Brewing’s Jubelale
Deschutes’ holiday beer, Jubelale, also has a different recipe each year and the brewery employs a different artist to create a new label. This is its 31st version, and it’s spicy with notes of cocoa, toffee and dried fruit.
6. Port Brewing’s Santa’s Little Helper
Named for the Simpsons’ dog, Port Brewing’s imperial stout is a great sipper, with notes of dark chocolate and roasted coffee.
7. 21st Amendment Brewing’s Fireside Chat
21st Amendment takes an Englishstyle brew and adds winter spices and enough warming heat to make it ideal to sip by the fire.
8. Marin Brewing’s Hoppy Holidaze
This hoppy seasonal is spiced with nutmeg, orange peel, mace, vanilla and cinnamon, with winter white wheat malt to smooth it out.
9. Anderson Valley Brewing’s Winter Solstice
The Boonville brewer’s Winter Solstice is its version of a winter warmer. Vanilla flavors dominate, but toffee and caramel notes come through, too.
10. New Belgium Brewing’s Accumulation White IPA Winter Seasonal
This white IPA takes an American IPA and adds the citrus and wheat malt of a witbier for a distinctive, unfiltered combination of two beer styles that boasts a snowy white head.
11. AleSmith Brewing’s Double Red IPA
The name may have changed — it was formerly known as YuleSmith — but it’s still a big red, intensely hoppy IPA with caramel and a bubbly effervescence.
12. Boston Beer Co.’s Samuel Adams Winter Lager
Samuel Adams takes an amber lager and adds cinnamon, ginger and orange peel to create a malty sweet beer with festive flavors.