Like colored lights, carols and official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifles, we don’t like to talk about Christmas beers until Thanksgiving is out of the way. Sure, we’ll drink them year-round if you’re offering, but this is truly the season for the dark, malty, potent holiday beers that make our noël so joyeux.
We bought 11 beers at Decatur’s wonderful craft beer store, Ale Yeah so our selection was only limited to breweries that distribute in Georgia. Still, that left some amazing Christmas ales. Here they are, ranked for your holiday shopping convenience.
11. Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve City: Newport, Ore. ABV: 6% Style: Red Ale Key ingredient: Hops Perfect for: Santa to put in your stocking if you’ve been naughty The verdict: This is not a bad beer for a hoppy red ale, but it’s certainly done nothing to deserve Santa’s visage on the label. This is about as Christmas-y as baseball on a hot summer’s day.
10. Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale Brown Shugga Substitute City: Petaluma, Calif. ABV: 7.9% Style: IPA Key ingredient: Brown sugar Perfect for: Christmas shopping (on Dec. 26) The verdict: Props to Lagunitas to owning their mistakes, but Domino’s did that too, and there’s still nothing good about their pizza. Lagunitas, since it makes really great beer that people like to buy, didn’t have room at the brewery to make their regular Christmas ale. The Brown Shugga Substitute has hints of spices and, of course, brown sugar, but we look forward to their regularly scheduled holiday beer in 2012.
9. Sierra Nevada Celebration City: Chico, Calif. ABV: 6.8% Style: IPA Key ingredient: West Coast Hops Perfect for: People who hate winter The verdict: I know several people who refer to this as their favorite Christmas ale, but those people 1. are zealous hop-heads and 2. apparently don’t like Christmas ale. Sierra Nevada plays to its strength with an IPA, whose citrus notes recall your Christmas days back in Miami with the pink-frosted tree, singing carols along the beach.
8. Sweetwater Festive City: Atlanta ABV: 8.5% Style: Winter Warmer Key ingredient: Cinnamon Perfect for: When you start thinking Christmas has been overdone. The verdict: As a winter warmer, this gets closer to the holiday spirit without the bold flavor of some of the higher-gravity beers on the list.
7. Bell’s Christmas Ale City: Kalamazoo, Mich. ABV: 5.4% Style: Scottish Ale Key ingredient: Roasted caramel malt Perfect for: All 12 days of Christmas The verdict: This low-gravity is smooth, mild and well-balanced while still hinting at those Christmas flavors.
6. Anchor Merry Christmas & Happy New Year City: San Fransisco ABV: 5.5% Style: Winter Warmer Key ingredient: Whatever makes it smell like pine Perfect for: Decorating the Christmas tree without knocking it over The verdict: Another easy-going session beer, Anchor coaxes a lot of flavor out of a little bit of alcohol. It also works as a really enjoyable greeting card.
5. Port Santa’s Little Helper (Bourbon-Barrel Aged) City: San Marcos, Calif. ABV: 12% Style: Imperial Stout Key ingredient: That’d be the bourbon barrels Perfect for: Earning your way onto the naughty list The verdict: This boozy-smelling, boozy-tasting beer has enormous flavor and quickly turned our beer tasting into a beer tasting party.
4. Mikkeller Santa’s Little Helper City: Copenhagen, Denmark ABV: 10.9% Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale Key ingredient: Smoked malts Perfect for: A Christmas party with no food The verdict: Brewed with spices and what taste like smoked malts, Mikkeller has a big enough flavor to drink while mixing with the office staff, even if the boss didn’t spring for food.
3. Scaldis Noël City: Leuze-Pipaix, Belgium ABV: 12% Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale Key ingredient: Belgian candi sugar Perfect for: After mom and dad have completed their Christmas Eve tasks The verdict: Bottles of Scaldis Noël are visions of sugar plums that I have dancing in my head on Dec. 24. Extreme sweet, malty flavors make this more like dessert than beer.
2. Corsendonk Christmas City: Oud-Turnhout, Belgium ABV: 8.5% Style: Belgian Strong Ale Key ingredient: Santa’s magic Perfect for: The official beer of the North Pole The verdict: The most Christmas-y of Christmas ales, this is the archetypal beer—just the right amount of spices, Belgian candi sugar and caramel malt. This is what we mean when we say “Christmas beer.”
1. St. Bernardus Christmas City: Watou, Belgium ABV: 10% Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale Key ingredient: Christmas spices Perfect for: Drinking with people you love. No, really love. The verdict: Simply one of the best beers in the world, the St. Bernardus Christmas Ale is dark as the richest Belgian chocolate, malty without being too sweet, with a perfect frothy head. At 10% abv, just one of these will make for a very merry Christmas season.
