Dec. 07, 2011 - Issue #842: Hroses

To the Pint

Christmas beer

Going beyond cinnamon in seasonal offerings

It is a newish beer tradition among craft brewers to brew up a beer designed for Christmas and winter. Most of the time this will consist of either a hearty stronger ale or a dark ale spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and similar holiday spices. I enjoy those beer, but I find myself growing tired of the cascade of cookie, mulled spice flavours. However, as the shipments of Christmas beer have been making their way onto the shelves this year, a few jumped out at me because they didn't seem to fit that regular mould. I grabbed three that particularly stood out.

Let's start across the pond with independent Scottish brewer Harviestoun. In recent years I have become a huge fan of Harviestoun for its consistently first-class beer, including the impressive Old Engine Oil and the sublime Ola Dubh series. The brewery's entry into Christmas beer, complete with a snowman on the logo, is Mr Sno'balls. Officially, it's considered a winter seasonal more than a Christmas beer, but either way it is no ordinary winter warmer. It pours a light chestnut brown offering a thin off-white head that clings to the glass. The aroma is mild chocolate and toffee with a soft grassy hop contrast. That is my first clue this is no ordinary winter ale.

The flavour brings out milk chocolate and toffee up front with some nuttiness to keep it from being too sweet. The beer sharpens mid-palate as some citrusy hop flavour breaks through. It finishes dry with a noted lemony bitterness and a touch of roast at the back of the throat. I also pick up a peppery spiciness in the finish, most likely from the type of hops used. With its citrusy hop presence, Mr Sno'balls presents more like a pale ale with some added dark malt. A Dark Pale Ale, if you will forgive the oxymoron. I like how Harviestoun didn't feel the need to cut back on the hops to make it more wintery. A beer I could drink any season, but that will still go well with Christmas turkey.

Next up is a beer from a BC brewery with the quirkiest branding and marketing ever. Aldergrove's Dead Frog Brewery fronts its image with a dead frog on the label. Its Christmas Beeracle drew me in in part due to its name and packaging—a gift-wrapped look including a gift tag—and in part to a shot of instinct. Dead Frog is nothing if not unpredictable. I expected something angular and out of the ordinary in terms of ingredients. Nothing on the label gave away what it might be. I would have to taste it to find out.

It pours light amber with a thin white head. The aroma is fairly traditional Christmas—nutmeg, cardamom, some ginger, cinnamon and brown sugar. The taste brings out a strong spice character that reminds me of gingerbread and pumpkin pie. I suspect the addition of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and ginger. The base beer is sweet but too thin to hold up the spices. I get a bit of bitterness at the finish, but that could be hop or another spice addition. It finishes sweet and sugary.
Not what I was hoping for. Beeracle presents as an ordinary Christmas beer, and not a particularly good example. It needs to cut the sweetness and bring up the base beer to hold the spices. In particular I was hoping for something new and creative.

The third beer may be the most interesting. Earlier this year local mainstay Alley Kat launched its Big Bottle Series, which is a set of single-batch, one-time special beer released in 650 mL bottles. The latest release, just in time for Christmas, is Cringer, a ginger-cranberry beer. Ginger is not unheard of in Christmas beer, but the decision to add cranberry, despite its obvious holiday connection, is original. Plus, the beer is very light and summery making the release rather counter-intuitive.
It pours a cloudy pale yellow offering a decent white head. The aroma is dominated by a spicy, pungent ginger accented by a light fruitiness and sharp malt sweetness. The flavour is similar, starting with a soft graininess blending with an earthy ginger spiciness. A bit of fruit plays in the background. The middle draws in some tartness and a fruity character. The finish has a sharp, spicy ginger along with a tart dryness. The body is light and refreshing. The ginger has a bigger presence than the cranberry, which lends a generic fruitiness and adds to the tartness of the beer.

It may not seem, at first, to be a good fit for Christmas, but as I sip it I can see myself eating it with my holiday meal. The pungent ginger would accent the turkey in the same way dressing does, and the cranberry is a natural fit.

Three beer, each offering a different interpretation on the holiday. All only around for a few weeks. A nice range for you to decide which will work best with your holiday traditions. Happy holidays! V vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus