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.