Christmas Seasonal Ale Reviews

If you are a Malt Advocate, then you look forward to all the kooky selections offered this time of year (The Barley Wine comes out later in winter)

Many of these have variations each year so they are not the same.

I have only tried Celebration Ale from Sierra thus far, and it seems especially hoppy this year, and surprizingly not the Cascade variety they are know for using.

I can wholeheartedly recomend the AFFLIGEM X-Mas ale. 9.something alcohol, and mighty mighty tasty.

The only x-mas ale I Like.

Your mileage may vary.
TG

I'm a big fan of Samichlaus. Very strong and very good.

http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-000100.html

As a zymurgist myself, I lick my chops the whole year in anticipation for Samuel Smith's seasonal ale.Dee-lish!
(not to be confused with Samuel Adams' seasonal, which is not without its charm)

tikitortured
Samule Smiths makes great stuff to be sure (with the exception of a Lager I once had...vile stuff that)

Don't they have a preperation sugestion involving placing a hot fire poker in the poued ale to carmalize it or some such?

Is the Samule Adams ale you mentioned the stuff in the small blue bottle? I've tried that and thought it was tremendous. Almost like a Sherry, but I'm not certain that's what you mean.

The Samuel Adams in the small bottle is their Triple Bock. If you like it, you must try the Samichlaus. They are very similar. Personally, I think the Samichlaus is a tad better.

I know not of this hot fire poker of which you speak involving Samuel Smiths, but I do know some Belgians that use a similar method to carmelize candy sugars.
The Samuel Adams Triple Bock is unusual, I have three vintages that I'm ageing and can't wait for that "special occasion" to crack into them. The one I tasted, tasted like teryaki sauce and would be good for cooking. As far as sipping...I hope it gets better with age.

The Affligem is terrific.

Anchor's Xmas this year is so heavily spiced that I found it a little overwhelming. Most years are excellent.

Speaking of collecting beers, anyone else enjoy the Fuller's Vinage Ale? It's a wonderful beer. Still sitting on a 1999 in the cellar.

Red Hook's Xmas is so over-hopped as to be undrinkable as far as I'm concerned. sigh...American micro-brews and hop overcompensation: oldest story in the book.

hey martiki, when you say the American Micros, overly hopped, it's kinda the Pacific Northwest trademark.

I had a Anchor Happy Christmas Ale today, and I agree, it was almost undrinkable in it's wierd tastes. (better as it warmed) I belive what they use is a spruce extract, which like Juniper was used way way back. (Funny about that stuff, for a long while it was hard to get after Chernoble as it mostly came from the far far north and was feared to be contaminated...better now)

Funny that so many Christmas beers are Ales here. (Samelclaus being the obvius exception)

There's a top notch Lagers from Weltenberger (Koster) and Aass which are frigging wonderful but quite diffiult to find.

There's a Smoked Porter from Alaska which I'm iching to try too.

The Belgian Candy Sugar is regular sugar, (Sucrose) boiled into water then crystalized on a string. It wouldn't seem to be much different, but it really changes the properties in fermentation. (Sugar typically gives a nasty cider like taste)

There is a Belgian style Brewery in New York who I'm sure uses it...gives a rum-rasin quality in the aftertase...quite nice.

Who need hot chocolate?

Heres a shot of perfection.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm Nothing like a frosty Ku mug full of Affligem Christmas Ale

Frosty the beer mug was a happy friend to me!

tg

that rumbling you hear a thousand monk doing back flips in thier graves.

The local brewery from my neck of the woods - George Gale and Co (probably most famous for their HSB) brew 2 festive beers - Christmas Ale and Robins Revenge - not sure if they export. Not so bad though, means more for us brits!!!

We've got a great little local brewery that makes their Hermannator Ice Bock every Christmas, it's limited edition and sells out within a month. They used to sell it in large bottles each accompanied by a dark chocolate which complements this one very well. It's 9.5%. I was able to score 2 six packs this year! Yahoo!

This is what THEY say about it:
HERMANNATOR ICE BOCK is a dark chestnut colour that appears almost opaque. Its full-bodied, rich malt palate blends well with mild bitterness. A smooth, but assertive mouthfeel contains hints of plum spiciness. A warming brandy like finish rounds out this outstanding winter ice bock.

This rare and complex beer is slow fermented then krausened and later frozen for 45 days. Between 5 and 7 % of the volume remains behind as ice, leaving a deep ruby color, a remarkably smooth and slightly sweet warmth with a brandy like finish.

TikiGardener,
Did you put your Ku in the freezer?

I've got him in tan but didn't think about chilling him for fear of crackage. Makes a fantastic seasonal beer mug!

Martiki my hubby loves his beer heavy in the hopps department, I'm not personally partial to that, but I've got a serious sweet tooth myself. I'll report back when we're using our own hopps, I might 'grow' more fond of them.

[ Edited by: Tikiwahine on 2004-12-13 12:14 ]

There's nothing wrong with hops, per se, obviously. I just think that in their quest to prove that Americans can make good beer despite the global stereotype of our cruddy lagers, microbreweries have overcompensated with the hops. This has probably been going on for at least 21 years (at least as long as Mendocino Brewing Company has been around). So of course you need hops to add character, balance the flavors, and act as a preservative, but it has gone out of control as far as I'm concerned, with hops overwhelming so many brands and styles. I mean why do IPAs, Wheats, Reds, Ambers, Pales, Pilsners, Porters, Stouts, hefeweizens, bocks, and others all have to taste like they're brewed with eight tons of hops, with a bag thrown in for dry hopping, and a hop flower in every bottle! (jk) It's overwhelms the other flavors and causes the styles to become muddied. In the initial rush to show that they were distinct from the Coors of the world, all these new microbreweries went heavy on the hops. This meant that the new class of micro-connesuirs out there developed a taste for hops early on. I know I did. And then their palates became used to high levels of bitterness. So now we've got all these beers out there celebrating the fact that they are over hopped, like it's some kind of fucking "extreme sport". What a shame. So many microbreweries are undrinkable to me- Lagunitas for one, Red Hook for another. I think Marin Brewing Company only has about three or four really drinkable beers, and they are the most GABF awarded brewery in California! I'm glad there's some places out there who list their IBUs, I wish more of them did it. And what a joke for so many American microbreweries to to say they're inspiried by English brewers, when in most cases the English use far fewer hops and lower ABVs- making their beer often times more quaffable and enjoyable, but without sacrificing flavor.

Obviously not all microbrews are shit- there are several good ones out there to my taste at least. But once I grew out of hop-fetishism, I discovered a whole world of new and exciting flavors.

To paraphrase:

Once you go , you never go back.

Yeah I put him in. Its not an everyday thing. I just thought he'd look really cool all frosty like.

You gotta live on the edge sometimes. Which tells you how unevenful my life is.
Aside from crushed toes and idiots slamming into my car because they were looking for a cassette instead of looking at the road in front of them.

TG

Whilst in London recently I tried the Young's Winter Warmer. Top notch!

"Whilst"! You can tell you were in London recently!

On 2004-12-14 09:59, martiki wrote:
"Whilst"! You can tell you were in London recently!

I say chaps leave it out!

Yeah the UK brews some killer winter brews.

On 2004-12-14 09:59, martiki wrote:
"Whilst"! You can tell you were in London recently!

Cor!

(Still don't know what that means).

It's been my view of British Beers that they get better the further north you go. (Generally)
What are thier Christmas Beers like? Spiced, spruced? Gingered??

Recipes from holiday times have fuckall (oops too much time in the Man Gazeebo) in them...Licorice, Cloves, fruit, ginger, honey...

I'm sick of honey as a beer ingridiant. Maybe if the bottle were shaped like a bear.

On 2004-12-14 12:14, thejab wrote:

On 2004-12-14 09:59, martiki wrote:
"Whilst"! You can tell you were in London recently!

Cor!

Jab, it means wow! or blimey!

UK winter beers are generally heavier and stronger than normal, and a bit more warming. Not many of them are spiced.

(Still don't know what that means).

On 2004-12-12 11:16, Gigantalope wrote:
tikitortured
Samule Smiths makes great stuff to be sure (with the exception of a Lager I once had...vile stuff that)

Don't they have a preperation sugestion involving placing a hot fire poker in the poued ale to carmalize it or some such?

Ah, that is called "flip". It is an old practice that dates back to Revolutionary War times - during the cold winter months in the Northeast colonies, the beer taverns would put a raw egg in the beer mug with the beer (and sometimes sugar too and maybe cream?). You'd then take the beer over to the tavern's fireplace, and shove the red hot fire poker that had been resting in the fire into your beer tankard. This process made the the beer, raw egg, and sugar combo instantly foam up and spill out, or "flip" out of your beer tankard. It became a favorite wintertime beer drink back in Colonial times - supposedly George Washington was a big flip drinker.

I've never tried making this, although I've wanted to for a while, but I do have a couple of original old flip recipies around here somewhere, if anyone is interested, although I think the method described above pretty much describes about 99% of the recipe. However, the recipies would be in some random box with about 95% of all my other stuff since I just moved - I'll have to dig them out.

I can also put in a good word for DeKonnick's Winter beer. Nice 6.5% malty double ale.

In response to Mai Tai's post (who happens to hail from the same town as me, which makes me think who it might be, but I'm not sure - did you move fairly recently?), here's a beer flip recipe from the great Esquire Drink Book from 1956. No hot poker needed!

Put 3 bottles of beer in a saucepan (not the bottles dummy, empty them into the pan!). Add a tablespoonfull of sugar, the rind of half a lemon cut up into small pieces, a clove, a half-teaspoonful of butter, & a pinch of mace. In a seperate container, beat up two egg yolks with one egg white and three tablespoons of cold beer. Now bring the first mixture to a boil, then add the eggs and beat the whole with an egg beater until it is smooth and foamy. Serve it while hot.

A flip is also a cocktail made of the following: a whole egg and some sugar, with sherry, applejack, or whiskey. Blend with cracked ice and serve in a sour glass with a spice garnish.

Around these parts the Stone Brewery puts out a fine holiday brew they call Double Bastard. Whilst at my local Bev & More today doing a little holiday restocking all I could find was the MAGNUM bottle of DB. At 3 liters & 10% alc. that's one helluva beer (at a $59.95 price tag). Another good seasonal beer is the Nocha Bueno by Modello.

Flips, yes! I thought I was going nuts and mixed up some torture with a beer recipe.

I too am just back from Bev Mo, and saw thatr 59.00 bastard of which Shipwreck speaks. Impressive!

It reminds me of the famous "Dawin Stubbie" of North Australia fame.

I saw a MacTarnahan Tripple as well...I think they were purchased (Mac's) by Pyramid this year, not sure if that's a new endevor or not, has anyone tried it?

On 2004-12-18 19:44, Shipwreckjoey wrote:
Around these parts the Stone Brewery puts out a fine holiday brew they call Double Bastard. Whilst at my local Bev & More today doing a little holiday restocking all I could find was the MAGNUM bottle of DB. At 3 liters & 10% alc. that's one helluva beer (at a $59.95 price tag). Another good seasonal beer is the Nocha Bueno by Modello.

Shipfix, They also refill them on a regular basis: $18 for a 3 Liter fill. The next refill is New Year's eve.