This very unique holiday beer is spiced with honey, caramel, coriander, black pepper & other secret ingredients. This is definitely not a typical saison. The Noel is ruby brown in appearance & has a fairly dry & spicy flavor profile with a subtle hint of wild yeast sourness in the background. The traditional Belgian Christmas dinner begins with a seafood course, followed by stuffed turkey & then “cougnou”, which is sweet bread baked in the shape of baby Jesus.
This American-style strong ale is a mixture of British Red Ale & Belgian Wit; and was brewed in Copenhagen, Denmark with bitter orange peel & American hops. The combination makes this beer something special. The aroma is citric hops. The taste has loads of fruity hops, pineapple, nice caramel malt & a bit of wheat. The traditional Christmas feast in Denmark is a roast goose or duck stuffed with apples & figs.
This infamous recipe was first made in 1980 by the Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg in Austria, and at 14% abv, is the world’s strongest lager. It’s brewed by the double decoction mash method, once a year on December 6th, in honor of St. Nicholas. Fermented at high temperatures, it is then aged for 10 months, transferring it several times to help raise & activate the yeast. It’s then released to the public 1 year after its brew date. A traditional Austrian Christmas day feast would consist of “weisswurst”, which is veal sausage made with bacon, onions, parsley, lemon, mace, ginger & cardamom.
This unique take on a Winter Warmer is a collaboration between Stone Brewing, Jolly Pumpkin & Nogne-O. Brewed with chestnuts, juniper berry, white sage, caraway seeds & 25% rye malt. Aroma is full of spice & herbal notes flavor is creamy with a zest of lemongrass, followed by herbal sage, while the caraway sneaks a jab here & there, followed by a nice rye snap. Norway’s traditional Christmas dinner is “ribbe”, which is roasted pork spare ribs, or sometimes lamb in the West.
Christmas dinner in Denmark ends with a dessert, called “risalamande”, which is made with rice pudding, whipped cream, vanilla & chopped almonds. Normally, one of the servings will contain a whole almond in the dessert & the lucky person who finds it wins a special prize. That traditional Denmark dessert was the inspiration behind this new brew made from rice, vanilla, sugar, salt, cream, cherries & almond extract. The result is a slightly tart ale which provides the counterpoint to the sweet risalamande
This English Barleywine is brewed by Ridgeway Brewing in the U.K. An aroma of sugar plums & grapes is followed by spicy tobacco & bitter hops, which are tempered by the honey malts. A subtle, yet creamy & complex mouthfeel develops, especially when your glass warms. We hope that this glass will leave you warm & toasty on a cold evening night.
The origin of sugar plums began in England around 1668 linked to the confectionary called “comfit”, which was a seed or nut coated in several layers of sugar. Sugar plums became a small round or oval “sweetmeat”, made of ground spices, such as anise, fennel, cardamom & caraway seeds, plus ground almonds, dates, figs, raisins & currants rolled in sugar. The word “plum” refers to the raisins or currants, not as we Americans think of plums today.