The 12 Days of Christmas (With a Beer Twist)

Morning Read's Tom Bedell is a beer connoisseur, so who better to tell the story of a dozen favorite holiday-season beers? (Trust us, he's done plenty of research.)

Author:
Tom Bedell
Publish date:
Dec 13, 2021

Around Christmastime for 10 years now, I've been drinking a dozen beers made especially for the holidays or characterized as winter warmers and writing up distinct reviews.

That’s over 100 beers — and that’s not counting the ones that didn’t make it into cyber-print — so by dint of sheer persistence I hereby declare myself a Christmas beer expert.

In the spirit of sharing, I’ve gone into the archives to try to determine the best of the best. Not an easy task, because the very notion of a brewery producing something special for the holidays means the beer is likely to be, well, something special. I’ve run into a few disappointing beers over the years, but the emphasis is on few.

Here are 12 of the best holiday beers.

Stylistically these beers are all over the map. Some are spiced, most are strong, many are as dark as a winter’s night. Consequently, they tend to be warming beers, ones that can cheer you up in a hurry or just as quickly set off visions of sugar plums dancing in your head. All can pair with hearty holiday meals gracefully.

Some will be easy to find, distributed nationwide. Others, like some of the Belgian beers mentioned, will require tracking down at a well-stocked specialty store. The last resort is relying on a mail order shipper, available in some states.

Enjoy.

Day 1: Our Special Ale | Anchor Brewing

The tradition of brewing a holiday beer was pretty much dead in the water in the U.S. before San Francisco-based Anchor brewed its first Christmas Ale in 1975, lighting a path so many other breweries have since followed. Anchor’s further shtick is to change its secret recipe every year and put a different tree on its label. This year's makeup features a spicy dark ale with hints of sour cherry. As for the tree? It’s a Western Joshua.

Alcohol By Volume: 7%

Day 2: Celebration Ale | Sierra Nevada Brewing

12ozCan_Celebration-WithPint_NEW2021 — Sierra Nevada

Now bicoastal in Chico, Calif., and Mills River, N.C., Sierra Nevada was another early adopter of a holiday beer (1981). In this case, the unspiced recipe has been unchanged for 40 years. And why bother, the beer is an annual joy as is, with all the impressions of spiciness coming from fresh hops.

Alcohol By Volume: 6.8%

Day 3: Christmas Ale | Brouwerij St. Bernardus NV

3_Brewery_St B — Brouwerij St. Bernardus NV

Despite the smiling monk-like chap festooned with a Santa hat on the label, this is an abbey-style beer, meaning not actually brewed in a monastery. It's brewed in Watou, Belgium. But it has spiritual qualities — honey sweet and spicy (without any spicing), a swirling medley of fruit aromas and flavors, and a chewy mouthful masking the alcoholic heat. That comes later.

Alcohol By Volume: 10%

Day 4: Trappist Holiday Ale, Spencer Brewery

This is a beer brewed in a monastery. There are 14 Trappist breweries in the world, but only one in the U.S. — at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass., which released its first beers in 2014. The Holiday Ale is a beauty, a dark brown elixir with plenty of fruit — plums and raisins — in a rich and balanced brew that has all sorts of spice aromas pouring out of the glass.

Alcohol By Volume: 9%

Day 5: Gouden Carolus Noël | Het Anker

This strong dark ale gives off plenty of warming vapors, along with a boozy plum pudding of aromas — touches of coconut, licorice, cardamom and who knows what else. The flavor is equally rich and mysterious, with coating waves of toffee and lashings of licorice. It’s sweet, but not treacly, and has a surprising tang at the finish rather than an alcoholic burn. A veritable punchbowl of pleasure coming from Mechelen, Belgium.

Alcohol By Volume: 10.5%

Day 6: Straffe Hendrik Xmas Blend | De Halve Mann Brewery

6_shlabel_brewery — De Halve Mann Brewery

Blends of the Bruges, Belgium brewery’s Quadrupel are conditioned in different Bordeaux, Calvados and rum barrels, and the result is a lid-lifter of thrilling complexity. The blend has a palate-opening flood of sensations — viscous and vinous, with flavors of apple, smoke, toffee and a real oak bite, and a nicely tannic finish — with heady aromas of malt, fruit and chocolate.

Alcohol By Volume: 11%

Day 7: The Mad Elf Ale | Troeg’s Brewing Co.

Brewed in Hershey, Pa., this is another whopper to approach with caution and excitement, a kitchen-sink of holiday inspiration with honey and sweet and sour cherries added to a boatload of malts and hops, along with a hybrid Belgian yeast. The cherries and honey are self-evident, but the palate on this bowl of contentment has spicy and warming depth.

Alcohol By Volume: 11%

Day 8: Stille Nacht | De Dolle Browers

A 12% ABV may well soon induce a Stille Nacht (Silent Night), but enjoy this classic in the meantime from The Mad Brewers in Esen, Belgium. Aromas and favors of pitted fruit, citrus, clove are all dancing around in this refined malt-accented brew, which nonetheless finishes tart and puckering.

Alcohol By Volume: 12%

Day 9: Adoration Dark Winter Ale | Brewery Ommegang

Brewed in Cooperstown, N.Y. — though Ommegang is owned by the Belgian brewery Duvel Moorgat — the seasonal ale has all the spiced, sweet, strong Belgian-style flavors you might expect from such a winter warmer. Spices include coriander, orange peel, mace, cardamon and grains of paradise, making for a highly alluring nose. There’s a huge malt character and a slight puckering finish. It’s sweet, but in the best possible way — never cloying.

Alcohol By Volume: 10%

Day 10: Santa’s Little Helper | Port Brewing Co.

I had a tasting panel help me out one year with this Imperial Stout and it delivered a sleigh full of impressions — molasses, sugar-cane syrup, brown licorice, dates, prunes — with a boozy aroma, chewy mouthfeel and a touch of sour pucker at the finish. A lot of thumbs up for this San Marcos, Calif., brew.

Alcohol By Volume: 10%

Day 11: Samichlaus | Schloss Eggenberg

This Austrian beer is brewed every Dec. 6 on Samichlaus Day (St. Nicholas Day), cellered for 10 months, bottled and then released the following Dec. 6. Samichlaus pours out with absolutely no head, a cannon blast of caramel, raisins, overripe apples, and nose-tingling fusel aromas. Swirl it around in a snifter late at night — preferably with a cigar in your other hand and the beer not too near an open flame.

Alcohol By Volume: 14%

Day 12: Avec les Bon Voeux | La Brasserie Dupont

From the Belgian makers of the classic Saison Dupont comes this stronger variant that is unfiltered with a hazy orange look in the glass and aromas of lemon, apple, plum, apricot and perhaps the faintest whiff of anise. This is a highly effervescent brew that scours the mouth, adds some minerality, pepper and a trace of funk, and finishes as dry and tart as champagne. The name translates to “With the best wishes,” so keep your champagne and serve this as the perfect New Year’s Eve brew.

Alcohol By Volume: 9.5%