Angry Santa Spice London Ale

Starting to get myself into the holiday spirit with some holiday ales.  And if the can art of Rahr & Sons' Angry Santa Spiced London Ale doesn't do it for you, maybe the excellent beer will instead.  The 8% brew pours a dark brown with an off-white head and smells of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, toffee, and some notes of apple.  The flavor follows the nose with some additional hints of vanilla, all in a medium bodied brew that really hits the spot.  Let's get festive.

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Bell's Old Fashioned Holiday Ale

And it seems that i may have just found my favorite brew of the season, the fantastic and delicious Old Fashioned Holiday Ale from Bell's Brewery.  The 10.8% beer is a bourbon barrel aged scotch ale with added dried cherries and orange peel.  It pours dark brown with a minimal head and smells of orange, spice, and alcohol.  The brew nails the cocktail taste and feel, flavors of orange, bourbon, and bitters highlighted up front, with the cherry and orange in particular becoming more evident as the beer warms.  It's a pricey 4-pack, but so, so good.

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TUPPS Full Grown Nick

Well, tomorrow's the big day.  Are you ready?  Are you prepared?  Because i'm sure not.  I have yet to wrap a single gift, instead deciding to go to sleep last night, and to rewatch Indonesian action film "The Night Comes for Us" the night before that.  I stand by my decisions, but that means there is probably not a wink of sleep in my future tonight.  And tomorrow is going to come so very, very early.  The 5-year old and the 2-year old will see to that.  Anyway, at least i've got plenty of beer.  Much like the Halloween variant of their Full Grown Man stout, the holiday version, Full Grown Nick from TUPPS Brewery, is loaded with season appropriate flavors and spices.  The 12.1% ABV imperial stout pours a dark black with a creamy, tan head and smells of chocolate, nutmeg, gingerbread, vanilla, roasted malt, and cinnamon.  The spices are heavy in the flavor, but retain enough balance to not go overboard, and ends things in a nice, boozy finish.  Merry Christmas everybody.

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Goose Island Festivity Ale

It's Christmas time, so let's all drink some Christmas ales.  Festivity Ale from Chicago's Goose Island Brewery is a nice place to start.  A 7.7% brown ale doused with not-your-regular holiday spices, the beer pours a dark brown with frosty, off-white head and smells of malts, molasses, and hints of dark fruit.  The flavor is sweet, but not overly so, the caramel and dark fruit flavors meshing well with just a hint of bitterness on the back end.  Tasty.

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3 Nations Texas X-Mas Ale

I can't find much information about the Texas X-Mas Ale from 3 Nations Brewing, but holy cow was it tasty!  From what i can ascertain on the brewery's facebook page, there appear to be two varieties of this fantastic brew, a creme brulee and coffee version and a Mexican chocolate and coffee version.  I had the latter.  Pouring a dark, dark brown, the Texas X-Mas pairs Christmas ale spices, chocolate, and coffee in a light-bodied stout.  The spice and coffee aromas are most prevalent, but give way to some chocolate notes and some very subtle hints of fruit in the flavor.  I believe it comes in around 8% ABV, and i sure hope i can find more of them.

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Karbach Yule Shoot Your Eye Out

Yeah, yeah, yeah, i realize Christmas was a few days ago, but there are still plenty of Christmas ales to be found on the shelves and enjoyed all the same.  Karbach's offering is the tasty and festive Yule Shoot Your Eye Out.  The brew pours dark with a decent head and plenty of carbonation, and smells of malts and spices.  The taste is pure winter holidays, with notes of cocoa, orange, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger.  It's an easy drinker, but also weighs in at 8% ABV, so make sure you're not going anywhere.  Happy Holidays!

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Saint Arnold Sailing Santa

The holidays are upon us, and with them a wonderful assortment of special holiday brews.  This year, Houston's Saint Arnold Brewing gives us Sailing Santa, a blend of their Christmas Ale and Elissa IPA with some added spices for extra oomph.  The two styles of beer compliment each other quite well, making for a delicious holiday treat.  The beer pours copper with a nice frothy head and smells of nutmeg, cinnamon, and hops, and the flavor is fantastic.  The Christmas spices mix pleasantly with the slightly botanical hops of the IPA, creating a beer that's warming, refreshing, complex, and different.  I loved it.  Get it while you can.

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Southern Tier 2XMAS Ale

So maybe this is a few days late, but it's still the holiday season, and i'm still enjoying all the Christmas beers i can get my grubby little hands on.  The 2XMAS Ale comes to us from New York's Southern Tier Brewery, and is a holiday treat indeed.  The beer pours a lovely amber with a bubbly, off-white head and smells of spices and fruits, almost like what you would get in a spiced cider.  The flavor consists of figs, orange, clover, and some back end hops to keep things from getting too terribly sweet.  This is a great brew to drink while sitting around the house with family, and at 8% ABV, you might as well get comfortable.

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