I love Christmas beer! Many of my favorites are imported from Belgium at premium prices. There are a couple secrets to getting Christmas beer at discount prices – up to 50% off. Here’s how.
Most commercial beers are meant to be consumed fresh. Fortunately, many Christmas beers are not like most commercial beers. Because they are
This Norwegian Holiday Ale comes with more than fine taste, it comes with a story. HaandBryggeriet is “Hand Brewers,” one of the new breweries to emerge in the explosion of craft brewing in Scandinavia. It’s four guys experimenting in a 200 year-old stone horse sable. And doing very well!
Nissefar, which means “Father Christmas,” pours nearly black with very little foam on top. The aromas is
Eggenberg Samichlaus (Santa Claus) Classic is my mainstay Christmas day beer. You can read the full story behind this record-setting 14% ABV lager here. It’s brewed in Austria only one day a year, on December 6th. Then aged for 10 months, during which time it is cold lagered and frozen to boost the flavor and alcohol.
I’m opening a 2009 today, making this bottle 6 years old since bottling, and
It’s no secret that Santa’s favorite Christmas beer is De Dolle Brouwers’ Stille Nacht. It’s a Belgian Strong Ale made with brewing equipment from a long-defunct brewery in the eastern Belgium town of Esen. Several friends bought the equipment in the 1980s called themselves the Mad Brewers (De Dolle Brouwers) and began to brew beers with life – yeast – still in them. The little guy on the bottle is often mistaken for a snowman, but is actually a yeast, representing the living nature of bottle-conditioned beer.
Stille Nacht Reserva was birthed after an accidental yeast overdose in 2000 exploded bottles as
Ecliptic Brewing of Portland, Oregon made this hoppy IPA.
Filament pours orange-red with a light head of foam. The aroma is grassy hops, with sweet honey and caramel from the malts. It’s definitely not just a double IPA. It has a firm malt base of Pale, Munich, and Caramel malts that provide some smooth sweetness. But it is an IPA with citrus and resin from the plentiful Crystal, Chinook and Centennial hops.
It’s a Winter IPA, more body, loads of a hops. It’s 70 IBU and 7.2% ABV strong. Another fine example of a Northwest Winter IPA.
California Grocer Trader Joe’s partnered with French Canadian brewery Unibroue to produce an affordable, Belgian style dark ale. It’s the type of beer made for aging. It has a firm malt foundation, plenty of sugar, 9% ABV, and bottle-conditioned. Today I’ll report on our vertical tasting of seven vintages, 2009 through 2015.
We brought all bottles to about 48f, the recommended temperature, and began
Miyazaki Hideji is one of the handful of Japanese breweries that began in 1996 with the change in brewing laws in Japan. Located on the beautiful Southern island of Kyushu, Miyazaki evokes nature, sea and tradition. Kuri Kuro means “black chestnut,” which is an appropriate name for this Dark Chestnut Ale.
Chestnuts are native to Japan. They are mostly used in desserts. In the winter, vendors roast them outside busy train stations and sell them to those walking by. You can smell roasting chestnuts from far off. Kurt Kuro’s aroma is bold as well: roasted malts, dark chocolate, nutty, chestnuts, with coffee and creamy vanilla.
Kuri Kuro pours dark brown with a thin head that dissipates quickly.
The flavor is that of a nutty Stout. I taste hazelnut and chestnut, with coffee and dark chocolate notes. It’s pleasantly sweet with a creamy rather than bitter finish. The carbonation is low, but the mouthfeel is good. It’s clean, not syrupy. At 9% ABV it’s a winter warmer for a cold night.
