Monday, December 25, 2017

'Holy Shit Beer of the Week' Christmas Edition

Love the Christmas and winter season beers.  It's really the only time of year when you can comfortably throw down a high gravity, viscous, powerhouse of a beer and not feel guilty or bloated.

We can't tell you how disappointed we are that so few retail outlets carry these seasonal favorites, but we finally found a fine selection at Total Wine on Dale Mabry, which was our 4th stop of our search. 

These 5 Christmas beers purely at random, except for the one that we drink every year.  Be sure that you grab one of these seasonals quickly, because they don't hang around long.

The first up is Santastique beer (5.6% ABV) from Danish brewer, To Øl. Interesting beer, it is a Belgian style blonde brewed with cardamom, orange peel and lemon zest and added Coriander and Lime Zest as a treatment.  The flavors are quite subtle and almost overshadowed by the 4 malts and 3 hops. Much lighter than expected and would be a fine holiday beer in a place where it doesn't really get cold at Christmas, like Florida, for instance.

Our second trial was a newer offering from the English brewer, Ridgeway. these guys until recently only produced Christmas beers that we are certain you have seen before:  Bad Elf, Lump of Coal, Reindeer Droppings, etc.  Santa's Butt (6% ABV) is labeled as a white porter, but for the life of us we can't see why they would call it either of those as that it is neither white, nor a porter. Frankly, if you have tried their 10 or so other holiday offerings then you have tried them all (including this one) as that they really all taste the same with very little in the way of flavor or style variation. A mediocre brown ale that you should pass by.

The third is our favorite Christmas beer and high on our list of all time favorite beers. St. Bernardus Christmas Ale (10% ABV) is the quintessential holiday beer.  St. Bernardus Abbey in Watou, Belgium has made this masterpiece of flavors that is a pure delight to sip with the slight burn of the warming alcohol, fermented molasses, apricots, licorice and marzipan that are highligted by the perfect balance of brewing sugars. If you have an aging rack in your collection, this one get better and better as it ages and we typically let ours age for 2 or more years before enjoying. Unbelievably good.

The fourth of our marathon is quite nearly as good as the St. Bernardus, and a few of the snobs think that it may be a bit better (blasphemy!). Het Anker Brewing from Belgium reintroduced their Gouden Carolus Noel (10.5% ABV) in 2002 after a 35 year hiatus, and boy are we glad that they did. This ruby red delight has 3 hops and 6 herbs and spices added to make your tongue dance with delight as you sip.  So easy to drink that you may have trouble sipping and not guzzling, but at 10.5% sipping would be wise. Stunningly delicious.

Our fifth offering is a local delight.  Gingy (9% ABV) by Tampa Bay Brewing is a .... well .... it's a Christmas miracle!  This imperial porter with notes of chocolate, caramel, and molasses would be fine and dandy as a stand alone, but with the addition of ginger, nutmeg, allspice and a dash of cinnamon you have a world class Christmas delight.  The burn of the alcohol is heightened by the burn from the ginger, then a fine spicy afterthought lingers on your tongue.  Any old timers will recall the Christmas Farm Ale from Dunedin Brewing, which was a fine holiday treat, well this beers takes memory and makes it much more of a treat. Kudos to TBB for creating this delight, which we hope will arrive every year with Santa. Love this beer.