REVIEW: Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper & Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Ah, Mikkeler, purveyors of all beers weird, wild, and most importantly, delicious. It's been too long since I've checked out one of their brews. Today I'm taking a look at Santa's Little Helper, a Belgian style strong dark ale aged in cognac barrels. And to pair with it, the Rankin Bass classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

REVIEW: Ridgeway Lump of Coal & How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Alright, hope everybody had a great weekend. Were it not for sports, I sure would have. At least Navy came through for me. Well, beer will never let me down, right? Today we've got Lump of Coal; a stout from Ridgeway Brewing in South Stoke England. This one was bought for the name only. I figured it'd be one that I'd be able to come up with a pairing for. And pair we shall, with How the Grinch Stole Christmas! And hey! It's all online so everybody at home can play along!

REVIEW: Sixpoint Global Warmer & Die Hard

I'm excited about this one. A new beer from one of my all time favorite breweries and one of my all time favorite movies. I knew when I started this whole Christmas beer and movie pairing excursion that I had to check out Sixpoint's newest, Global Warmer, and Die Hard, what might be the definitive American action movie. At first blush, neither is easy to come up with a celluloid or brewed counterpart to. I think I've come up with something though. Let's get to it.

REVIEW: Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale & Doctor Who

I'm slowly but surely getting back into the swing of posting here every other weekday. So, today we soldier on with the Christmas parings! This fine Wednesday I'm looking at Winter Welcome Ale, a winter warmer from Samuel Smith's. A brewer that has always seemed to me to be quintessentially British. I'm not sure if that's actually their actual perception within the UK but to me when I think of British beer a bottle of Taddy Porter immediately springs to mind. But today, in the spirit of the season, we have Winter Welcome Ale, and to pair with it, something as essentially British and as essentially Christmassy, the Doctor Who Christmas special, The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe!

REVIEW: Tröegs Mad Elf (2012) & Elf

I'm back, baby! I'm sorry about the month I've taken off. The new job has not left me with much time to write on here. And honestly I've been struggling what to do with this blog anyway. The review format that I've been plugging away at for almost two years has started to feel awfully stale. I'm still not quite sure where I'll end up taking this blog, but in the meantime I think I've got something pretty cool up my sleeve. Probably the most fun I've had on this little old blog-o-mine was last year when I looked at all those Christmas beers. This year I'm going to do the same but with a bit of a twist. In lieu of pairing all of these beers with food I'm going to pair each beer with a Christmas movie! Or a TV special or episode what have you. So, seasonal beer and seasonal programming, two great tastes that taste great together!

If you'll remember, last year I took a look at Tröegs Mad Elf. Before you keep reading refresh your memory on my thoughts, here. When I bought that sixer last year I had the foresight to stow a couple of bottles down in my parents basement. Today I have a 2012 bottle of Mad Elf, and the movie to go along with it, maybe a bit of a predictable choice, the Jon Favreau directed Elf!

REVIEW: Country Boy 3 Hos

Another Christmas post! So this morning's beer was somewhat of a disappointment. But Christmas presents are like that sometimes. Sometimes a gift doesn't fit, sometimes it's the wrong color, sometimes it's just downright lame. I can assure you that this beer is the exact opposite. I was in Lexington last weekend and made it a point to make a trip to Country Boy's tap room. I had read on twitter that they had recently released their. new Christmas ale, and knowing that it would likely make for a good post for the blog, i brought my growler along. I know i've said it before, but if you go to Lexington and leave without checking out Country Boy then you are a damn fool. Every time I go in there I am incredibly impressed by the quality and creativity of their beers. And as you will soon see, 3 Hos is no exception. To the beer!

REVIEW: Affligem Noël

Well, here we are. The last of the Christmas beers. This has been a whole lot of fun. I'll be sad to see them go. But that's half of the magic of Christmas, it's always over before you're ready to be over, At least I'm going out with an interesting one, Affligem N oël, A Belgian style Strong Dark Ale. I don't know the first thing about this beer, but going from a complete judging-a-book-by-it's-cover type place, I'm pretty excited. To the beer!

REVIEW: Listermann White Death

Merry Christmas!! I know Christmas falls on a Tuesday and Tuesday isn't one of my usual days to post content on here. But in the spirit of the season here is my gift to you, my dear readers, extra content! I'll be honest, as much as I do appreciate all of you folks who do check in here and check out my rambling thoughts on beer, and I really do, it's awesome. But this is just as much for me as it is for you guys. I have had too much fun talking about Christmas beers and I'm not quite ready to give them up just yet. So, you guys get more stuff to read and I get to drink and talk about more Christmas ales. It's a win win for everybody. A Christmas miracle! As I sit here writing this it's currently Christmas Eve and I'm watching It's A Wonderful Life and drinking a beer. Life doesn't get much better. Adding to the lovely evening is the fact that the beer I'm currently drinking comes from Listermann. Careful followers of this blog will recognize that name as the name of the shop I get my homebrew supplies from. The beer is called White Death and is brewed with Saigon cinnamon and fermented in Kentucky bourbon barrels. Now that sounds right up my alley. To the beer!

REVIEW: Samuel Adams Merry Mischief

Merry Christmas Eve, folks! The season of Christmas beers is almost at an end but not quite yet. And I'm going out with a cool one. This one was actually the first Christmas beer I bought this year. It was back in like October. That's no time to be drinking a Christmas ale, but my fondness for Sam Adams' limited releases ought to be well documented by now. And a gingerbread stout?? Come on! How am I not going to buy that? Also, I like to see a Christmas ale full of seasonal spices built on top of a big hearty stout. I'm excited about this one. To the beer!

REVIEW: Anderson Valley Winter Solstice

So, let's get this out of the way right up front. The world is not ending today, the Mayans were wrong. Sorry if I'm bursting anybody's bubble. This reminds me, I remember watching a movie about the Mayans in spanish class in I think it was the second or third grade. There was a bit in there about how the Mayans predicted that the world would end in 2012. All of this was accompanied by this giant stone clock grinding to a halt. It kind of freaked me the hell out. But now I'm older and wiser, well at least older, and I know that the apocalypse is not yet at hand. What today actually is, is the first day of winter, the winter solstice. And what better beer to check out today than the winter seasonal from Anderson Valley, Winter Solstice! It checks in at 6.9% ABV and only 6 IBUs. To the beer!

REVIEW: Southern Tier Krampus

So everybody is super familiar with Santa Claus/ St. Nicholas/ Father Christmas all that right? Jolly old elf, gives presents as rewards to all of the good girls and boys. Well originating in pre-christianity Alpine Europe is a rather terrifying and bizarre character, Krampus, who sits firmly in opposition of St Nicholas. A demonic satyr-like creature that beats bad children with sticks and rusty chains! Weird and wild stuff right? If you've got the time to fall down a pretty fascinating Wikipedia rabbit hole, check out all of this historical Santa Claus/ Krampus stuff. So, just as Krampus is the opposing figure to Santa, This beer is the opposing figure to all of the hearty Christmas ales that I've been drinking lately. Southern Tier's Krampus is an Imperial helles lager. A Christmas lager? Very interesting. To the beer!

REVIEW: Smuttynose Winter Ale

My first experience with Smuttynose was pretty fantastic. I adored their Shoals Pale Ale, a great beer to be sure. My second experience was less... enjoyable. I found their pumpkin ale to be a bit disappointing. I'm not one to be put off a whole brewery based upon one bad experience though! And after hearing some good things about this particular beer I'm back to my month of Christmas beers with Smuttynose's Winter Ale. A Belgian style abbey dubble checking in at 5.83% ABV and 30 IBUS. Let's see if Smuttynose can win their way back into my good graces. To the beer!

REVIEW: Tröegs Mad Elf

Today's beer is a bit of a popular one. Mad Elf from Hershey, Pennsylvania's Tröegs Brewing Company,  a brewery that I quite enjoy but have yet to take a look at a beer from here on the blog. Mad Elf is an 11% ABV Belgian Style Strong Dark Ale brewed with honey and cherries. Mad indeed! This is what I like to see. A brewery going a bit outside the traditional seasonal box. Tröegs, it seems, has moved way outside of the box. To be fair though, this is certainly the time of year for 11% ABV beers. It finally feels like winter and I need a heart brew to fight off that chill. To the beer!

REVIEW: Sierra Nevada Celebration

If the Anchor Christmas ale is the original Christmas beer, today's isn't far behind. Sierra Nevada first brewed Celebration in 1981. Also making it special is the fact that this beer is a wet-hopped IPA, certainly unique for a Christmas beer. I know I'm intrigued. To the beer!

REVIEW: Rogue Santa's Private Reserve

I have had a ton of fun taking a look at all of these Christmas ales over the past few weeks. I haven't had the time to watch all of the Christmas movies and specials that I love: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, It's A Wonderful Life, Die Hard, Home Alone, Charlie Brown Christmas, and so on and so forth. In light of enjoying all of that Christmas content on tv and on film I have been enjoying my Christmas content in liquid form. The latest Christmas beer here on the blog is Santa's Private Reserve from Rogue. A dry hopped red ale in a glow in the dark bottle. To the beer!

REVIEW: Anchor Christmas Ale

So, of all of the Christmas ales I've looked at in the last few weeks none of them have near as much history as this one. The 2012 offering of Anchor's "Our Special Ale" is the 38th such beer. Since 1975 the brewers at Anchor have been putting out a Christmas ale, but the really cool thing about how Anchor does it is that each year the recipe for the beer, along with it the beautifully illustrated label, are different. No two Christmas Ales are quite the same and Anchor is very tight lipped about what exactly goes into each year's batch. All I know is that this will be a dark, rich, spiced beer. That's it. I'll have to drink it if I want to find out anything more. To the beer!

REVIEW: Bell's Christmas Ale

I mentioned on Monday's post that I really appreciated that Southern Tier went in a new, weird direction with their Swedish Glögg inspired 2XMAS. It's always cool and fun to see brewers blaze new paths and do something different. Bell's has done something different with their Christmas Ale as well. But they've done something different, well, differently. Instead of a big spicy winter warmer, Bell's Christmas Ale is a sessionable Scotch ale brewed entirely using Michigan malt. Not a hint of seasonal spice to be found, no high ABVs, nothing extreme or wild or out of the ordinary. Just a good, drinkable beer, perfect for drinking a few at a holiday party. So, how does it stack up? Only one way to find out. To the beer!

REVIEW: Southern Tier 2XMAS

Fist things first. Sorry today's post is going up so late. I had planned on posting this review this morning but internet connectivity issues reared their ugly heads. But better late than never, right? Also, today's post is pretty cool so it ought to make up for the lateness. I've been looking at a lot of Christmas beers lately, Winter warmers, old ales and the like. It seems that the vast majority of Winter ales are all slight variations on a certain theme. Southern Tier has decided to go a bit of a different way with this one. Their Christmas ale, 2XMAS, is a beer brewed to be reminiscent of a Swedish Glögg. A Glögg is a mulled wine made with spices and citrus. Now, obviously 2XMAS isn't a wine, it's a beer but it is brewed using some of those traditional Swedish Glögg ingredients. 2XMAS is brewed with figs, orange peel, cardamom, ginger root, cinnamon, and clove. Sounds like it ought to be pretty interesting. To the beer!

REVIEW: Great Lakes Christmas Ale

So the Christmas season is finally upon us. If you are a friend of mine you know how much I love Christmas and all that goes along with it, the music, the movies, the tv specials, the decorations, the tree, all of it. Also, the beer. I think winter/ Christmas seasonals are my favorite of the year. Nothing against spring, summer, and fall beers, there are certainly many that I love dearly. But the beers that come out this time of year? I can't get enough of them. Rich, dark, malty, spicy, most of them rather boozy. Right up my alley. Today's beer is a favorite in this part of the country, Great Lakes Christmas Ale. It's a winter warmer, which is kind of a nebulous style. Anyways, it checks in at 7.5% ABV, 30 IBUs and is brewed with honey, ginger, and cinnamon. To the beer!

REVIEW: Breckenridge Christmas Ale

I know what you're thinking. What the hell am I doing reviewing a Christmas Ale when it's damn near March? Well, first of all, Jungle Jim's was liquidating its stock of Winter beers so it was three bucks for a sixer. Also, this February seems to be as close as we're going to get to an actual winter. That's how I'm justifying it so you might as well just go with it. OK? OK. To the beer!