Their Christmas Ale is a 5.5% abv holiday treat with a piney hoppy character that calls to mind the family Christmas tree—that is to say, rather than the “traditional” spiciness that many brewers complement their holiday beers with, Abita brews a hop-forward ale.

Generally, this beer is a dark ale, however, the recipe changes each year, offering a unique product crafted with special care. Enjoy your holidays with Abita Christmas Ale. The spicy character is excellent with traditional holiday foods such as gingerbread or spiced nuts. Try some Blue cheese or a creamy Camembert with a Christmas Ale.

The only thing I’d like to see added to such a Christmas beer is pecans, though Abita already has that covered with their Pecan Ale. If you’re feeling adventurous, try blending half Christmas Ale, half Pecan Ale for that additional nutty kick.

Untappd. Facebook. BeerAdvocate: 78/100. RateBeer: 2.84/5, 34th percentile.

Black and tan

You can see I did much better this time around pouring a Black and Tan.

Incidentally, the other beer I’m using is Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic. Not a favorite, but I thought it would be an interesting experiment. Overall, not bad.

First was Laurelwood Brewing‘s Espresso Stout—actually its full name is Organic Portland Roast Espresso Stout. Our friends Paul and Sandi brought this over Saturday night. This one’s like drinking espresso, possibly the most coffee-infused beer I’ve yet tasted.

Sunday I finally had a chance to have Deschutes Brewery‘s Oregon 150, their sesquicentennial ale brewed with all Oregon ingredients. (It was back on tap after I missed it the first time around.) This is a very different beer—it’s magenta in color (I’ll have a picture up soon), sour and fruity—very fruity, almost like a fruit lambic, there’s almost no traditional “beer” character at all. It’s only 4.2% alcohol, as well, and extremely limited, so if you can try it, do so.

Maiden Oregon Ale, brewed at our Portland Brew Pub by Cam O’Connor, is a Belgian amber ale that was brewed using Crystal hops from the Willamette valley, organic 2-row barley from Klamath Falls, water from Mt. Hood, Oregon beet sugar from Nyssa, and yeast from Wyeast labs in Hood River. At 8.0% alcohol by volume, this one will be best enjoyed sipped out of a snifter glass.

Oregon 150 Ale was brewed at our Bend Brew Pub by Paul Arney. This beer has a very unique color and flavor that makes it hard to categorize. Brewed with barley malt grown in the Klamath Falls basin (malted in Portland), blackberry honey from Yamhill County, Oregon marionberries and Crystal hops from the Willamette Valley we have created a beer like you’ve never tasted before. Our mash conversion took place at, you guessed it, 150 degrees!

Both beers were brewed using only Oregon ingredients, needless to say.

I hope I get a chance to try some of the Oregon 150 Ale! That sounds pretty interesting.

So I started emailing them. I haven’t gotten to all of them yet, but do have some results to report. Not surprisingly, most of them aren’t brewing anything special. But a few are.

• Hopworks Urban Brewery brewed a Sesquicentennial beer, according to brewmaster Christian Ettinger: "Our Sesquicentennial beer is an imperial IPA made with 150# of Cascade and Willamette hops for 20 bbl. The flavor is outrageous. It will be available just in time for the celebration."
• McMenamins has brewed a "special cream ale" for the event: they "are having a 150th Oregon Birthday Bash at the Crystal Ballroom on Saturday. The cream ale will be called Sesquicentennial Cream Ale in honor of Oregon’s 150th, and is only available there."

Several other brewers haven’t produced a beer specific to Oregon’s birthday, but will be serving up special beers (either as part of Zwickelmania or Valentine’s Day or something else):

• Pelican Pub & Brewery has their spring seasonal Riptide Red (the cask version of which is "dry-hopped a second time in each firkin").
• Full Sail is planning to tap a keg of Old Boilermaker and pair it with chocolate on the 14th. (That’s a barleywine aged in bourbon barrels, apparently.)
• New Old Lompoc didn’t produce a Sesquicentennial Ale, but did brew an Inauguration Ale—the first such beer I’ve come across brewed by an Oregon brewer.

More as I find them out.

Any idea how good a cream ale has to be to make a top 25 list? As excellent as this one. This brewery may have one of the most beautiful views in America, with a backyard that butts up against the Pacific Ocean, and that beauty soaks into the beer.
Tasting Notes: Kiwanda begins with a slightly sweet, delicately bready malt character. It moves into a firm floral hop presence with mild bitterness and delicate malt character. This is easily one of the best light-bodied beers in the country and is bright, flavorful, and wonderfully easy to drink.

I don’t remember the last time I saw a 5.1% alcohol beer on a "Best Of" list—much less a Cream Ale. That’s awesome.

to brew a special commemorative ale for the state’s 150th birthday. Sesquicentennial Ale will be available starting Feb. 14—Oregon’s birthday – on draft and in limited edition 22-ounce serigraphed bottles. Sesquicentennial Ale will debut at Oregon 150 celebrations in Salem and Portand. It will also be featured at the Oregon Brewers Guild open houses at Rogue’s Newport and Eugene breweries that weekend.

You can read the full release here (PDF).

I don’t know much about "Oregon 150"—the non-profit apparently responsible for "planning the state’s sesquicentennial celebration—and how official they are, but it seems to be this would be a great opportunity for other Oregon brewers to get in on. (Jeff expresses similar sentiments.) Indeed, Deschutes already is:

Brewing 2 beers this week with 100% Oregon ingredients to celebrate Oregon’s 150th birthday on Feb 14th.

And though I haven’t done the legwork (yet), I’m willing to be that other brewers are following suit.

And actually, I think I’ve already decided to do "Oregon Beer Week" for February’s Theme Week to celebrate Oregon’s 150th. The timing is just too good not to.

• Christian Moerlein‘s Over the Rhine (OTR) Ale
• Wild Goose Brewery’s Oatmeal Stout
• Brasserie Duyck‘s Jenlain Noël

I’ll write about them as I drink them.

But, this is a beer blog, so just a rundown of some of the beers we tried as we counted down until the New Year:

• Sam Adams Winter Classics mix pack; I had Boston Lager, Winter Lager, and Old Fezziwig last night, and enjoyed a Holiday Porter today.
• Pickled Santa from Ridgeway Brewing; this came in my birthday beer of the month club package that I just got, and we split a bottle among three of us.
• Raven Mad, BridgePort‘s Imperial Porter—three of us split a 22-ounce bottle that our friends Paul and Sandi brought over.
• Hibernation Ale from Great Divide.
• Brown Shugga from Lagunitas (I’m enjoying one even as I write this).
• Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale (cheap six-pack from World Market).

And of course, the night finished with champagne, too.

The list looks a bit long for a "low-key" evening, but it was spread out about 7 hours, with lots of water consumed also.

Happy New Year, everyone!