What Makes a Christmas Beer?

With a chill outside and a roaring fire and festive atmosphere indoors, family and friends gather around a winter holiday table, anxiously anticipating digging in to hearty, savory entrées and decadent desserts highlighted with winter spices. As the host enters the room, the pop of a cork produces a startle. Contrary to the expectations of many guests, rather than sparkling wine, the host begins to pour a dark, rich, spiced Belgian Christmas ale into everyone’s wine glass. Although many seem skeptical of the selection, all doubts fade as each guest sips the luxurious ale alongside succulent roast duck and sweet potatoes. The pairing achieves a perfect marriage of flavors.

Wines can be expensive, acidic, high in alcohol and overpowering to many winter seasonal dishes. Eggnog is filling and fatty, and cocktails and mixed drinks are often too intoxicating to enjoy throughout an extended evening of socializing and feasting. Seasonal winter beers make perfect accompaniments for festive winter celebrations, and the craft beer craze has definitely spilled over to modern holiday tables.

Winter seasonals and Christmas beers began as adored traditions in England, Belgium and Germany where brewers created warming ales and lagers that were more robust in color, aroma, flavor and alcohol. These are not beers to quench a thirst but to sustain a soul through the dead of winter.

Seasonal winter beers make perfect accompaniments for festive winter celebrations, and the craft beer craze has definitely spilled over to modern holiday tables.

With roots in the ancient European pagan celebrations around the winter solstice, winter beers later saw production in abbeys and monasteries throughout Europe. Monks often brewed the celebratory ales to honor the birth of Christ and provide fortification during the fasting periods associated with Lent.

Although not typical in the UK or Germany, Belgian and American craft brewers enjoy concocting modern winter brews that showcase a variety of fruits, sugars and spices that can suggest mulled wine or Christmas sweets. The Beer Judge Certification Program’s style guidelines describe winter seasonal beers as “stronger, darker, spiced beers that often have a rich body and warming finish suggesting a good accompaniment for the cold winter season.”

Christmas beer flavors and aromatics encompass an extensive range. Some may simply be darker, maltier, hoppier or stronger versions of a classic style, while several other examples may include notes of Christmas cookies, ginger, desserts, chocolate, spruce, juniper berries, citrus, dried fruits, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and spicy alcohol. A rich, malty profile usually provides a balance for spices and holiday-inspired ingredients, and special additions of fermentable sugars could include molasses, maple syrup, brown sugar, honey or candy sugar. Toffee, biscuity, toasty, nutty or mild chocolate notes can provide a deep, malty, sweet character.

Balance and approachability form key goals in the production of an outstanding winter seasonal beer. Malt notes, special ingredients, any spices and underlying hops should work together in the creation of harmonious and appealing aroma and flavor profiles. Imagine a Christmas beer that’s too syrupy and cloying or a spiced ale with an overload of nutmeg or cinnamon. Too much of any one component can be overwhelming and detrimental to the beer’s overall appeal.

Winter ales should also deliver the aromas and flavors that are listed on the label. If the holiday beer claims to be based on a classic style, then the classic style should come through and not be smothered by special ingredients. If the beer is made with Belgian yeast, a pleasant, fruity, Belgian ester character should be present, alongside any fruit or spices. If the ale contains juniper, one should definitely pick up a light balance of this character in the nose and on the tongue.

A classic American example that began in 1975, Anchor Christmas (a.k.a. “Our Special Ale”) is known for its distinctive labels that have been hand drawn by the same artist since 1975 and showcase a different tree species each year. The recipe of this fascinating ale varies from year to year but always includes an appealing balance of dark malts, interesting hops and hints of spice and piney resins. Even though the beer’s alcohol content comes in at moderate levels, some aficionados insist on cellaring bottles for years, often with surprisingly interesting results.

Anchor Christmas (a.k.a. “Our Special Ale”) is a classic American example of a Winter Ale.

Just a few of the many American winter ales worthy of sniffing and sipping include the piney, ruby-colored Deschutes Jubelale that comes wrapped in artsy, winter-themed labels; Lost Abbey Gift of the Magi strong golden ale made with Frankincense and Myrrh; SweetWater Festive dark ale spiced with cinnamon and mace; and Heavy Seas Yule Tide – a rum barrel-aged, boozy ale that changes style with each annual release.

With a few hopped-up exceptions such as Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and BrewDog Hoppy Christmas, winter seasonals tend to exhibit malty, sweet profiles with subdued hop presence. Warming alcohol usually imparts pleasing palate notes and a viscous, piquant, satisfying finish in many examples.

As mentioned earlier, Christmas beers made in the UK tend to leave out spices but include higher levels of malt, body and alcohol than standard, sessionable pub ales. These stronger brews are usually bottled and consumed during social gatherings and celebrations during the colder months. Most pub regulars in the UK would balk at the idea of ordering an imperial pint of 7% ABV winter beer, but splitting a 16-ounce bottle between friends on a frigid evening makes perfect sense.

Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome, a UK flagship winter seasonal or “winter warmer” ale, hails from Yorkshire’s historic Samuel Smith Old Brewery. Made in classic open fermentation vats that are lined with slate from a nearby quarry, this malty English ale arrives in festive, vintage-dated bottles each winter and offers delightful notes of caramel, toffee, stone fruits and hints of apple. There’s no better holiday beer to complement a plate of roast turkey, cranberry sauce and sage dressing.

Other UK holiday standouts include Ridgeway Brewery’s Bad Elf – a 6% ABV malty ale with biscuit notes and UK hops. In need of more naughtiness this holiday season? Ridgeway also bottles Very Bad Elf, Seriously Bad Elf, Criminally Bad Elf and Insanely Bad Elf – each with increasing ABV levels upward to 11%. Also seek out the dark, malty Fuller’s Old Winter Ale from London that embraces toffee, chocolate, licorice and ripe fruit complexity.

As most brewers in Germany still abide by the Reinheitsgebot beer purity law of 1516 that recommends all German beers include only water, malt, hops and yeast, most winter seasonal beers in the country are simply based on recipes with extra malt and alcohol. Brawny doppelbocks range from dark gold to deep brown in color and possess intense levels of toasty German malt complexity and alcohol warmth, highlighted by a clean, lager fermentation. No beer pairs better with sausages and apple strudel in front of a fireplace on a winter evening. Check out examples such as Paulaner Salvator, Ayinger Celebrator, Tröegs Troegenator, EKU 28 and Smuttynose S’muttonator.

Belgians are mad about their Christmas beers. Since many core Belgian ales already possess an impressive alcohol content, most Belgian Christmas ales rank as extra-powerful and somewhat reminiscent of cordials and liqueurs. There are complex, flavorful examples like the boozy, spicy Gouden Carolus Noël; the fruity, rich St. Bernardus Christmas; Kasteel Winter, with its chocolately, vanilla character; and the spicy St. Feuillien Cuvée de Noël and Delirium Christmas.

Belgian Christmas ales are extra-powerful, complex and somewhat reminiscent of cordials and liqueurs.

With their big, malty bodies, wine-like alcohol levels and ester and spice complexity, many Christmas beers make exceptional candidates for aging in cool cellars for a few years. While spice notes tend to fade, alcohol warmth smoothes out and becomes softer with age. Heavy, sharp, dark malts shift toward hints of plum, raisin, prune, fig, sherry and vintage port. It’s a terrific idea to buy at least two bottles of a high-gravity Christmas ale – one to drink during the current holiday season and the other to put aside for a time. Vertical tastings of several years of the same brand make for an amusing holiday party idea.

Since America seems caught up in craft beer mania, Christmas gatherings that offer tastings of a variety of winter ales have become remarkably trendy. Try pairing each ale with a different style of cheese or meal course. Pour two brands of similar winter ales in glasses labeled “A” and “B” and have guests discuss tasting notes, differences and preferences. Want to make a beer lover truly ecstatic for the holidays? Head to a highly-ranked bottle shop and ask the clerks for recommendations on winter beers as gifts.

A winter beer’s sweet malt, full body, creamy carbonation and complex profile makes for a superb accompaniment with almost any winter holiday dish. Caramely, malty ales complement the caramelized flavors of roasted meats, fried foods and oven-roasted vegetables. Sweet, dark, spiced beers even work well with creamy desserts and non-spiced cakes, cookies and pies. Drinking a spiced Christmas ale with a spiced dessert can muddle complex flavors and often lead to a “polar express train wreck” on the palate.

Experiment with winter beers and holiday foods, discover favorite pairings, keep notes on hand for next year and enjoy great beer and friends during this wondrous time of year.