In the beverage world, nothing says Christmas more than Christmas beer. Throughout the brewing world, the holidays are a time when breweries release special beers that are brewed just for the season. Sometimes this means spiced ales, where the beers emulate the spiced loafs and pies that we find on our tables this time of year. But it also means Strong Beers.
It’s the holidays. We are celebrating with friends, and strong ales can help us do that. The holidays also mean we are spending time with our families, and strong beer can help us do that too. And strong Christmas ales can help keep us warm through the colder winter nights.
At The Blind Monk, we always feature a full spectrum of beers, including beers from each of the four main brewing countries: England, Germany, Belgium and America. This holiday season, we are proud to feature a Christmas Strong Ale from each of them.
England – Criminally Bad Elf
Criminally Bad Elf is a classic English Barleywine brewed by the Ridgeway brewery in Oxfordshire. Barleywines are rich, malty, full-bodied strong ales, so named because they are beers with the alcohol strength of wines. While England is a country that is known for sessionable, lower alcohol beers, Barleywines are the big exception to that rule. Traditionally enjoyed in the colder winter months, Barleywines are also sometimes called Winter Warmers, as they do just that.
Criminally Bad Elf clocks in at 10.5% ABV, and highlights all the traditional elements of the style. It is a malt driven beer with an intense fullness of both flavor and body. The subtle ale fruit notes found in other English Styles are present here as well, but with no subtlety at all. That rich ale fruit complexity melds beautifully with the deep maltiness of the beer, creating a lush, full strong ale to put you in the holiday spirit.
Germany – Aventinus Eisbock
Although Schneider now releases its Aventinus Eisbock year round, it is best enjoyed in colder weather, and indeed it is cold weather that created the Eisbock. Eisbock is one of those happy accidents of the beer world. One winter several decades ago, Schneider was shipping a barrel of its Weizenbock across the frozen roads of Bavaria. Weizenbocks are strong wheat beers, that combine some of the refreshing fruitiness of a hefeweizen with the malty richness of a doppelbock. The Aventinus Weizenbock itself is a beautiful work of winter beer art, and at 8.2%, it is definitely a winter strong ale itself.
But on that particular cold winter night, it was so cold that the Weizenbock inside the barrel partially froze. Some of the water from within the beer froze in a sheet of ice on top. When that ice was removed, what was left behind was a stronger, more concentrated version of the beer, now measuring 12% ABV. The concentration of the liquid within also concentrated the flavors of the beer, yielding an even richer, more complex finished product. Now brewed to replicate the process that first occurred by accident, the Aventinus Eisbock is one of the most full flavored beers of Germany. Though born of the cold, the Eisbock is sure to keep you warm.
Belgium – St. Bernardus Christmas Ale
Of course, any collection of Christmas strong ales would be incomplete without a Belgian Christmas Ale. Belgians love brewing strong ales, and many Belgian breweries create specialty ales for the holidays. There are so many different Christmas ales brewed in Belgium, that the country even hosts a Christmas beer festival in December that exclusively features special seasonal creations.
One of the best Christmas Ales of Belgium is the one brewed by St Bernardus. Known throughout the world for its amazing Trappist-inspired strong ales, St Bernardus creates a special strong dark beer for winter release each year. Fruit notes of plum, raisin and molasses meld with subtle spice notes from the Belgian yeast in this 10% beauty of a beer. Because Belgian strong ales are also brewed with some sugar adjuncts (such as rock candy sugar), they have a lighter body than other beers of the same strength, making a deceptively smooth, enticingly complex ale.
America – Prairie Christmas Bomb
American craft brewers love creating specialty seasonal ales, with fall and winter seeing the most diversity of styles being released. Prairie Artisanal Ales in Oklahoma has been making some big waves in the craft beer world, and its Bomb! spiced Imperial Stout has probably made the biggest waves of all of its creations. While the flavor is rooted in the dark roasty complex intensity of an Imperial Stout, it is enhanced with coffee, cacao nibs, vanilla beans and pepper additions. It has become something of a cult sensation.
For Christmas this year, Prairie created a special version called Christmas Bomb!, which features some holiday spices added to the mix. The pepper additions are downplayed in this version, leaving room for the wintery spices to shine through. All of these different elements come together in a delicious dark ale that is a great representation of American Craft Beer creativity and innovation. Plus at 11.5% ABV, it can tuck you in on Christmas Eve all by itself.
Happy Holidays
No matter which beer you choose to celebrate with, have a safe and Happy Holidays from The Blind Monk!
Jason Hunt, Certified Cicerone®
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