Well, for the final day on the Advent Calendar, it's Samichlaus, of course! "Samichlaus" means Santa Claus, so I can't think of a better beer for our final day and for Christmas Eve. I've written about it before, so it's no surprise I think highly of this beer. In general, though, you'll either love it or hate it.

When I wrote about this last year, the BeerAdvocate score was 88; now it's dropped a point to 87, though it has a 94% approval rating.

It's been fun writing the Beer Advent Calendar this month, I hope everyone enjoyed it. If I don't get back on tomorrow for a bit, have a Merry Christmas!

I picked today's beer simply because I liked the name: Gritty McDuff's Christmas Ale. I don't really know much else about it, but the website says:

Our Christmas Ale is a robust E.S.B. (Extra Special Bitter) full of holiday cheer. Christmas Ale has a lovely, dark red/amber color and a rich, full-bodied, malty taste with a slightly roasted undertone.... Gritty's Christmas Ale has no additives, fruits or spices. It's just a good honest ale, perfect for the season.

On BeerAdvocate it's racked up a decent 86, with 95% approval. (Only three of those reviews are from this year, however.)

Sounds like a decent beer. And the name "Gritty McDuff" just makes me smile. :)

Today's beer is Holiday Spice Lager from Lakefront Brewery in Wisconsin. You don't see too many lagers as holiday beers (or at least, I haven't come across many while doing this), especially one as potent as this: brewed with honey, oranges and spices, it weighs in at an astounding 9.5% alcohol by volume! The website says:

This beer uses two pounds of honey per pound of malt in its brew, making it an exceptional fortified holiday specialty beer which will keep for years. The spices and hops balance the sweetness of the honey and malt to give this lightly hopped beer its perfect flavor.

Wow. That's a serious beer. BeerAdvocate scores it 88, with 97% approval. Most of the reviews I looked at agree that this beer is heavy on the spices, though not in a detrimental way, and the high alcohol content is well-hidden. I guess that means you'd better watch out when drinking this if you don't already know how strong it is. :)

Today's nod goes to Old Jubilation Ale from Avery Brewing Company in Colorado. It's a big beer; at 8% alcohol by volume, the site says it's "cellarable" for two years. My kind of beer!

Sounds like a winner, too: the website describes "a hint of hazelnuts, and a finish reminiscent of mocha and toffee." And on BeerAdvocate, where it scores 87 with 99% approval, a number of reviews mention toffee, hazelnuts, coffee, sweet fruits, and chocolate.

That's a nice thing about beers like this, and the holiday beers in general: complexity. These beers are meant to be savored and enjoyed, not guzzled down like their lighter brethren.

Only three more days left!

Sorry for the late post! Since it's late, it'll be a shorter one, too.

Today I picked Boulevard Nutcracker Ale from Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Missouri. It looks to be a medium-amber winter warmer, at 6.1% alcohol. Their website says it's a "classic winter ale, deep amber in color, with hints of molasses."

BeerAdvocate rates it at a solid 85 (out of 100), with 100% approval. Sounds good to me! (Anyone want to send me some?)

I picked today's beer based on a glowing review by Alan of A Good Beer Blog: La Choulette De Noël. However, this won't be a beer for the faint of heart, I think; Alan writes:

Dark copper ale under an off-white creamy rich head. The aroma is horse blanket which sat in rotting potato peels for a week. Sound disgusting? It is not but that is French country ale - beer for people who eat blue cheese and the flesh of horses. A touch of fig and date below and a bit of nut, too. Hazelnut cracked shell - dry and dusty within the richness.

And over on BeerAdvocate, this review note caught my eye:

The idea here seems to be "transparency" — what some may describe as "thinness." The point is to capture natural, ordained flavor in the most discreetly textured medium possible. On that measure, this is a stunning success.

It scores 85 over there, with 96% thumbs-up.

After reading the reviews, I'm coveting this beer. It would be, as Alan says, "the prize."

Back to America again with today's beer, Anderson Valley's Winter Solstice Seasonal Ale. I've enjoyed Anderson Valley's beer in the past (they brew a good amber), but haven't had this one. They say:

Luscious, creamy, smooth, and warming, this medium bodied ale is brewed with Caramel and crystal malts to give it just a hint of sweetness, then paired with our private blend of holiday spice.

It racks up a score of 85 on BeerAdvocate, 95% approval. It sits at a hefty 6.9% alcohol.

Anderson Valley's website indicates that Winter Solstice is "going fast," so you'd probably better grab a bottle if you see it. Unless you think that's just marketing hype... but you could grab a bottle anyway. :)

I didn't realize until today that I hadn't included any German beers on the Beer Advent Calendar... so I'll rectify that now. Mahr's Christmas Bock is today's selection.

Based on the BeerAdvocate profile (the website is all German, with no English that I can find), this is a malty maibock style weighing in at 6.5% alcohol by volume. It's not a typical holiday beer; one review notes:

You have to love the Germans. While everyone else is putting out holiday ales that are either spiced or hopped to the heavens, the Deutschland takes this time of year to put out a malt bomb.

And another says,

I don't know what makes this a 'Christmas' bock, as nothing in this beer really stands out. But taken all together - it is mighty fine.

It scores a respectable 84 with 96% approval.

Today we have Santa's Private Reserve from the incomparable Rogue Brewery here in Oregon. This beer is essentially a double-hopped St. Rogue Red, including "a mystery hop called Rudolph". But don't let that fool you; if you find this beer, you'll be in for a treat.

It scores 87 on BeerAdvocate, with 99% approval. It also has more positive and 4+ (out of 5) scores on the first page of reviews than any other beer I've looked up so far, I think. The same holds true on the second and third pages, too... though frankly, that's what I would expect from a Rogue Ale.

...Yes, in my opinion they're that good. I do wish they would brew more seasonals, though. Perhaps next year...

This beer clocks in at 6% alcohol—not huge, but consider that you'll likely find this in 22-ounce bottles... meaning, you'll feel the kick when you're done with one!

Kind of a provocative title... but that's what Men's Journal has published: Best Beers in the World. It's a bold list; I don't know about their categorization (Lagers & Pilsners, Ales & Bitters, Belgian Beers, Dark Beers and Summer Beers)—I'd be more inclined to rate based on actual style (best porters, IPAs, lambics, etc.)—but they seem to have a decent spread of beers.

Including the obvious picks, like Guinness Stout and Celebrator Doppelbock.

Via Slashfood.

We're over halfway to Christmas and through the Beer Advent Calendar... today I picked Samuel Adams Old Fezziwig Ale. It's not a beer you find on its own anymore, but in Sam Adams' Winter Classics 12-packs. According to the web site, this is the "Christmas cookie of beer," brewed with cinnamon, ginger and orange peel and weighs in at 5.9% alcohol.

On BeerAdvocate it scores 85, with 97% approval. A lot of the reviews talk about how sweet the beer is, along with the strong spice characteristics imparted by the cinnamon and orange peel, in particular.

Sam Adams offers several holiday beers, not to mention their "extreme" beers... selecting just one was tricky—mostly since I haven't tried their holiday offerings! But the Holiday Porter looked good, too... who knows, maybe that'll show up on this list before it's over.

Ahh, Full Sail Brewing—one of the flagship breweries of Oregon. And their Wassail is a nice festive selection for today. Wassail is brewed "with four different malts and a blend of imported hops," and has 6.5% alcohol by volume.

BeerAdvocate: 86 (out of 100) with 96% thumbs-up. In the interest of fairness, though, I'll point out that on the first page of reviews, there is the widest disparity between two reviewers that I've seen: one gives a score of 1.65 (out of 5), the other 4.5. The low review says:

I can't believe I'm drinking the same beer as other people, or the same beer as I've had in years past, for that matter. This beer is, in a word, lame. And sad. And pretty close to tasteless.

Whereas the high-end review says, "The taste is pure heaven...malt, cinnamon, more malt, chocolate. Lots of volume, and nothing left behind. The flavor just goes on and on.... I absolutely love this beer. Superb!"

Go figure. I'll say this though: I've never been disappointed with this beer. It's definitely worth it if you can find it.

Via Hail the Ale! comes this fun link: Beer in 78 languages. Some artificial languages, too.

Arabic — beereh (biræ)
Chinese (Mandarin) — pi jiu
Esperanto — biero
Hawaiian — pia
Japanese — biiru
Russian — pivo

"Pivo" appears not only in Russian, but in Azerbaijani, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, and Ukrainian as well. I kind of like it.

Bonus: "awje" in Klingon (literally "root beer"... I couldn't find just "beer").

Today I selected the Winter Ale from the always-reliable Alaskan Brewing Company. This beer has the distinguishing quality of being brewed with spruce tips—yes, spruce tips from trees. Why?

From the seafaring adventurers of the 1700's to the homebrewers of today, adding spruce tips to beer has a rich history in Southeast Alaska. The tender new growth of Sitka spruce tips lends a delicious, yet subtly sweet floral aroma to tea, jelly and now Alaskan Winter Ale.

Spruce beers are one of those rare styles that originated in Colonial North America (U.S. and Canada); spruce was often used in place of hops (when hops were lacking) and as a flavoring agent. I've heard that a flavor characteristic of a spruce beer is Pepsi-like, though I can't vouch for that.

There's a good overall score of 85 on BeerAdvocate, with 95% thumbs-up, though there are several unfavorable reviews.

The Alaskan web site also offers food recommendations (and you know I like those):

Serve with roast goose, turkey, ham or lamb. A nice complement to holiday breads pound cake, or apple pie.

Today's pick is from Belgium: Fantôme Spéciale De Noël. This monster has 10% alcohol by volume, and this strength is not for the faint of heart—if you don't like barleywines, it's probable that you won't like this, either.

Part of the reason I picked it is because I rather liked the name; literally translated (ignoring the obvious "special" part), it becomes "Ghost of Christmas" or "Christmas Ghost." I like the Dickensian Christmas Carol sound of that, although the label is a little more cartoony than the "ghost of Christmas future" image floating around in my head.

BeerAdvocate gives it a score of 88, with a solid 99% approval rating. From reading the reviews I think you can expect an atypically-strong Belgian beer through-and-through. Here's a sample:

The flavor was smooth as silk with a nice caramel maltiness coupled with dark fruit flavors of raisins, figs, prunes and plums. The bittering from the hops balanced the flavors and kept the malt charge in check. The flavor was earthy and spicy and well achieved. The complexity was very, very nice and those same bready aromas came forth in the flavor.

Sounds excellent.

Strange, but true: Tomato-based beer now on shelves. I'm not sure what to make of it.

Yearlong efforts by a Niigata brewery and a Tokyo izakaya pub owner have finally borne fruit: Their tomato-based, low-malt beer is now on the shelves.

Called Tomato Bibere, the reddish brew has a characteristic taste, combining the sweet flavor of a tomato with the bitter taste of hops. One tomato is used in the production of each 330-milliliter bottle.

I've heard—back in the day—of mixing Molson Ice with tomato juice (or V8), making a passable drink... mostly this was stuff I'd heard of in college. But it's hard to imagine the entire beer brewed from tomato. I'd think one of the really big problems is overcoming the acidity of tomatoes.

Any beer drinkers in Japan want to try this and write up a review?

What, you think I'd let Seriously Bad Elf get by without being selected after I'd written about it? This beer's a whopping 9% alcohol by volume, a "very English interpretation of a Belgian Tripel" according to the link.

I can't vouch for it, though—but I do like the bottle :). BeerAdvocate gives it a decent score of 85, but the approval rating is 87%—the lowest approval of the beers I've selected so far. So, your mileage may vary.

I picked up a six-pack of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale today and realized it would be an ideal pick for today's beer. Sierra Nevada is one of America's oldest and best craft breweries, and their beers prove it. Celebration Ale scores an outstanding 90 (out of a hundred) on BeerAdvocate with 99% approval.

I always like it when the website offers suggested food pairings; Sierra Nevada's is:

With an ale as big as Celebration, you need a dish assertive enough to hold its own. Rich meats such as prime rib, lamb, or wild fowl underscore Celebration’s huge aroma, making a wonderful holiday meal. Intense, earthy pastas also work well—try goat cheese ravioli, a rich fettuccine, or gnocchi with Gorgonzola cheese sauce.

I haven't sampled any of the six-pack I bought today, but now I'm looking forward to it tomorrow!

Today I've picked New Belgium Brewing's Frambozen. It's a tasty raspberry brown ale, with respectable strength (7% ABV) and delightful fruit flavor. It makes for a great holiday brew for people who don't like overly heavy, dark, or strong beers.

About this year's vintage, New Belgium's site says:

Brewer Bill Hepp traveled to Oregon this year to oversee the selection and shipment process. He describes the first moment he experienced this year’s harvest.

“The room was redolent with the thick, summery aroma of fresh, red raspberries,” Bill recalls. “I opened the drum, untied the plastic liner, and scooped out a handful. Putting a few in my mouth, I could tell immediately that this was going to be an excellent year for Frambozen.”

An exceptionally warm growing season made for sweet fruits with a pleasantly tart finish.

I guess I'd better pick some up...

BeerAdvocate gives it a score of 85, with 92% approval. Some of the reviews mention a chocolate tone to the beer, which I don't remember noticing before, so perhaps it's particular to this year's batch...?

Today's beer is not only a seasonal, it's also the first 9% alcohol-by-volume beer brewed in North Carolina since the state raised it's alcohol limit from 6% this year: Weeping Radish Brewery's Christmas Doppelbock.

The BeerAdvocate reviews don't really apply here, as they were for the previously 5.8% alcohol Doppelbock... but of that, it scored a commendable 84.

You may not find this beer outside of the Eastern Seaboard, but you can order it online: 12 12-ounce bottles for $34.99, or $36.99 if you're west of the Mississippi River, with $7.95 shipping. However, even though their website says they use SSL encryption for the order form, I've just tested that out and the order form is not on a secure page. I've emailed them about this, but for now, if you try to submit your credit card, you'll be doing so at your own risk.

Today I'm coming back closer to home and selecting BridgePort's Ebenezer Ale. It's a rich, strong, medium-hoppy beer. It's been awhile since I've had this, but from what I remember it was a pleasantly strong winter warmer. Though reading some of the reviews on BeerAdvocate makes me think I missed something:

Cinnamon potpourri aromas. Gaudy Christmas "craft store" fragrance with too many scented candles and altogether too many cinnamon knick-knacks. Red grapes and a bit of a vinous tone appears.

Flavors of cinnamon-dusted cherries. Rich moist holiday spice cake. A flurry of rugged alcohol burn. Maltiness of caramel and toffee. A modest dusting of cocoa powder. Dry hoppiness. Slight fruitiness in the aftertaste.

Others similar to that make me think "fruitcake." But it did well overall: 84 out of 100 and 94% thumbs-up. Pick up a sixpack and try it out; hopefully you won't be saying "humbug" :).

Today we travel to France for Brasserie Duyck's Bière De Noël, a Saison-style ale that is, according to their website, "Darker than the traditional amber beer, its torrefied undertones are reminiscent of flowers and caramel."

The site also notes:

Produced with more malt than Jenlain Ambrée (3 different types of malt made from French grown barley and 3 varieties of the most aromatic hops from Alsace), this top fermented, unpasteurized beer, best served at between 6 and 8°C, has a rich amber glow, a denser head and stronger alcohol content (6.8% alcohol by volume).

Sounds good to me. Though I doubt I'll be able to find any locally, I'll keep an eye out.

It has a strong showing on BeerAdvocate, with 87 out of a hundred. And 100% thumbs-up from the reviewers. Amusingly, the reviewer who gave it the lowest score (3.4 out of 5) wrote, "Not bad for a French supermarket beer."

Today's pick is Sly Fox Christmas Ale. I don't really know anything about the beer, or the brewery, but I'll trust BeerAdvocate on this one: a score of 87 with a 100% reviewer approval rating. The Sly Fox site gives this description:

A malty, full-bodied red ale made with traditional mulling spices: Ginger, Clove, All Spice, Cinammon & Nutmeg. If this one doesn't get you into the Christmas spirit, you truly are a Scrooge.

The BeerAdvocate reviews all indicate the beer was served on-tap, though the Sly Fox website says it's currently not on tap, with the line "6.5% ABV bottled, 5.5% ABV draft"—so it may be offered in a bottle, but if not, you'll have to be in Pennsylvania to try it when it's available.

Today I chose Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale for Day 4. This is a nice, understated beer—I didn't notice the spiceness that's prevalent with other holiday beers. Clear, sweet and hoppy, it packs a respectable (though not excessively high) alcohol (by volume) of 6%. Their website gives serving suggestions:

Roast goose, smoked turkey with oyster dressing, rack of lamb, candied yams, Smithfield hams, fresh pears and apples, Christmas cake. Serve in crystal tumblers or traditional Yorkshire nonik pint glasses.

Sounds like quite the Christmas meal! This is definitely a worthwhile beer to drink while the snow is falling.

It scored 83 out of a hundred on BeerAdvocate, with 92% of reviewers giving it a thumbs-up. The only thing I'd watch out for is the clear bottle—stored improperly, beer in clear bottles can skunk quickly. (Some of the reviews on BeerAdvocate mentioned skunkiness and the clear glass, which prompted me to mention it.) So this gives you an excuse to buy a bunch at a time—to rescue them from the market and store them properly in your pantry :).

Today's pick is Goose Island Christmas Ale. At 5.6% alcohol by volume, it's a little weaker than one would expect from a winter warmer/holiday ale, but don't let that fool you. From their website:

Every year to celebrate the holiday season, we brew up our Christmas Ale, and with each year we change the recipe slightly so that you have something special and new to look forward to. Traditionally, our Christmas Ale is a complex, strong, brown ale that develops well in the bottle for up to five years.

I've been to Goose Island once, many years ago, and I remember quite liking the beers they brewed (I got a sampler). This beer looks like it would be no exception, and the BeerAdvocate reviews agree. They scored it 86, with 99% approval. They generally note a sweet and spicy profile, noticeably hoppy.

Yes, I already wrote about this back in October, but today's beer is Deschutes Brewery's Jubelale. Each year Deschutes selects a new artist and theme for the label, and locals always look forward to when this seasonal is released.

Strong, malty, caramel-y, roasty, every year Deschutes hits a home run with this beer. The BeerAdvocate folks agree, with a score of 88 (out of 100) and a 99% approval rating.

If you can find this beer, buy it. Buy a sixpack. And since each year's label is commissioned from a local artist, keep a bottle (empty or full) around each year to compare the various artwork. (Alternatively, check out this site which has the Jubelale labels going back to 1998.)

I thought it'd be neat to kick off December by doing a "Beer Advent Calendar" here, featuring a different Christmas beer each day up to Christmas. So, the first beer is Anchor Christmas Ale.

Each year the recipe Anchor uses to brew this beer is different, as is the label. The website says:

Each year our Christmas Ale gets a unique label and a unique recipe for the Ale itself. Although our recipes must remain a secret, many enthusiasts save a few bottles from year to year—stored in a cool dark place—to taste later and compare with other vintages. Properly refrigerated, the beer remains intriguing and drinkable for years, with different nuances slowly emerging as the flavor mellows slightly.

Anchor has been brewing this seasonal since 1975. Expect a spicy, malty, strong-ish winter warmer.

On BeerAdvocate it racked up a total score of 86 (out of 100), with a solid 94% approval. A good number of the comments mention an overall gingerbread character. If you can find this beer, buy several—one to drink, the rest to save and age for later Christmases. (If you do plan to save them, store them in a cool, dark place.)