Today is my birthday (yay!), so I thought I'd be totally self-indulgent in my beer pick. This is not nominally a holiday-themed beer, but it's a high-alcohol, special release ale from Stone Brewing: Imperial Russian Stout.

Stone is making some of the best American beer around, and I can't think of a better birthday selection than a bottle of this. Or more than one... in various vintages, of course.

Its BeerAdvocate score: 93/100, 100% approval—one of the highest scores of any beer I've seen.