5 Beer Styles (and Countries) for Christmas

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Cheshire Cat

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Bit bored tonight so though what beers would are must have for Christmas, here are mine

  1. UK - Sussex Best Bitter
  2. USA - Sierra Nevada Pale
  3. Belgian - Leffe Blonde
  4. Ireland - Guinness West Indian Porter
  5. Germany - Erdinger Weissbier
Please let me know what you think and add yours please.
 
My must haves are:
UK: Shepherd Neame's Christmas ale and St. Peter's Winter Ale, although if forced to choose I go with the winter ale.
Belgium: We usually open a bottle of Gouden Carolus Imperial Dark each christmas.
I'm working on a beer similair to St.Peter's to be brewed soon aswell to mature a bit until Christmas time.
 
Yesterday and today I’m bottling 6 gallons of a Christmas beer I made. Our club does a holiday beer exchange loosely based on the ones they do on here. We get a number of brewers to each brew something and we swap bottles at the November meeting so we have them for the holidays.

I’m way early with mine but its a big beer and I wanted it to age for a little. I did an 11% RIS with candy cane and peppermint bark flavors. I call my regular RIS “Back in the USSR” so I changed that and modified the same label. AI generated label. We had a cat who had to be put down right before Christmas last year due to total kidney failure. He was a Russian Blue. I made this in his honor.

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Far as commercial I look for the bigger beers;
- Sierra Nevada Bigfoot (classic holiday beer)
- Sierra Nevada Celebration
- Wyerbacher Insanity (local to here)

I like Samuel Smith Winter Welcome

I’m not a Belgian guy but there are a bunch of Belgian holiday beers that show up at bottle exchanges and holiday club meetings.

I always struggle with beers to make to put on tap for the holidays. I’m going through that right now. I have a Vienna Lager to be kegged, a Doppelbock to be bottled after these Christmas beers in a couple weeks. Outside of that I have 4 open taps.
 
Please let me know what you think and add yours please.
I won't argue with anybody's must haves, but I'm not sure what those beers have to do with Christmas other than making nice gifts. Personally, I tend to gravitate toward big stouts for Christmas. They warm the heart on a cold night, although cold nights are getting pretty rare around here the last few years.
 
I won't argue with anybody's must haves, but I'm not sure what those beers have to do with Christmas other than making nice gifts. Personally, I tend to gravitate toward big stouts for Christmas. They warm the heart on a cold night, although cold nights are getting pretty rare around here the last few years.
Don’t forget a Stout isn’t just for Christmas and I’ve got WI Porter at 6.6%. I couldn’t think of anything worse than beer with Cloves, Cinnamon and ginger. I like beers I drink the rest of the year not Wassail or Mulled Wine.
 
Don’t forget a Stout isn’t just for Christmas and I’ve got WI Porter at 6.6%. I couldn’t think of anything worse than beer with Cloves, Cinnamon and ginger. I like beers I drink the rest of the year not Wassail or Mulled Wine.
A couple years ago I was saying the same thing. I was a judge some years ago, hated that category, dreaded judging it. Then our club started this holiday beer exchange where we all brew and trade beers. Last year I did an Anchor OSA clone and got a whole new perspective, couldn’t be happier with that beer. BYO did a big write up off an interview with Anchor’s former brewmaster. Of course it came out after I already did mine.

Also Christmas/Holiday beers don’t have to be spiced. Old Ale, Winter Warmer, Barleywine, we have one guy doing a Belgian Quad and another guy doing a Baltic Porter. Its all fun.
 
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I'm currently drinking a recently matured ESB, but I also have some Belgian Blond from a few months ago. But whatever, the main thing is to have good company, old Elvis Christmas songs, and enough beer.
 

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