Image courtesy Binny’s Beverage Depot
Holiday beer time is one of my favorite parts of the year. From just before Thanksgiving to mid/late January, beers brewed for the holiday season hit the stores and make holiday beer drinking delightful.
Certain types predominate: winter warmers, spiced ales, Belgian (and Belgian-style) strong ales and stronger-than-usual IPAs. Winter warmer ales are generally higher in malt and malt flavor and higher in alcohol by volume than your everyday ales. Spiced ales have, like their winter warmer brethren and sistren, more robust malt content and add one or another seasonal spice or herb – nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, clove, orange peel, among others – and are also relatively high in abv (6% – 8%). Belgian/Belgian-style strong ales are in a class by themselves: much deeper malt, much higher abv (9% – 12+%), sometimes brewed with a candy sugar that amps up the alcohol, never mind the sweetness. The holiday IPAs are generally just as hoppy as normal IPAs, but have higher malt content and, therefore, higher abv (6% – 9+%).
This list of beers comprises those easily or relatively easily available in the Chicago area. Several of them are piled up in supermarkets (Jewel – Osco for example). Some you might need to hunt for in, say, Binny’s or the The Beer Temple. I’ve also listed some that some sites say are available to us but that I have yet to see.
All in all, this list should keep you busy and happy, no matter how curmudgeonly you style yourself. Meanwhile, I will lament the loss of the holiday beer tradition that started all of this for me: Anchor Brewing’s Our Special Ale – a different recipe every year, a different bottle label every year – now merely a memory.
Holiday Beers 2023
- Trader Joe’s Vintage Spiced Ale 2023
- Large corked bottle for only $5.99!
- Made by Unibroue
- 9% abv
- Might be sold out in smaller stores
- Great Lakes Christmas Ale
- Six pack, 12 oz bottles
- Honey, Ginger, Cinnamon
- 7.5% abv
- Available everywhere
- Great Lakes Barrel Aged Christmas Ale
- Four-pack, 16 oz cans
- Same formula as standard Christmas Ale
- Aged in bourbon barrels
- 8.0% abv
- Begyle Christmas Ale
- Four-pack 16 oz cans
- Spiced ale – bay leaves & cinnamon sticks
- Trader Joe’s, other outlets
- 7.0% abv
- Bell’s Christmas Ale
- Scotch Ale (one of the best!)
- Six pack bottles
- 7.5% abv
- New Belgium Holiday Ale
- Six pack 12 oz cans
- Cranberry and spice
- 7.5% abv
- Available everywhere
- Spiteful Jingle Balls
- Six pack 12 oz cans
- Spiced ale – ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks
- 7.6% abv
- Available generally
- Breckenridge Christmas Ale
- Six packs 12 oz bottles, cans; larger min-keg
- Winter warmer brewed the same each year
- 7.1% abv
- Available generally
- Goose Island Christmas IPA
- Six pack 12 oz cans
- 7.5% abv, 50 IBU (it’s an IPA; what can I tell you?)
- Generally available
- Sierra Nevada Fresh Hop Celebration IPA
- Six pack 12 oz cans
- 6.8% abv, 65 IBU (it’s an IPA; what can I tell you?)
- Available generally
- Revolution Fistmas
- Six pack 12 oz cans
- Spiced ale – ginger and orange peel
- 6.5% abv; 21 IBU, so hoppier than most spiced ales
- Available generally
- St. Bernardus Christmas Ale (Belgium)
- Stong Ale (Quadrupel)
- Large corked bottle – 25.4 oz; four-pack 11.5 oz bottles or cans
- 10% abv
- Beer stores
- Delirium Noël (also Delirium Christmas; Belgium
- Strong Ale
- Large corked bottle – 25.4 oz; four-pack 11.5 oz bottles
- 10% abv
- Beer stores
- Shiner Holiday Cheer
- Dunkelweizen (dark wheat ale) brewed with pecans and peaches
- Six pack 12 oz bottles or cans
- 4.2% abv
- Generally available
- Three Floyds Alpha Klaus
- IPA/Porter
- Six pack 12 oz bottles
- 7.3% abv; 67 IBU ((it’s an IPA; what can I tell you?)
- Beer stores, some other outlets
- Chouffe N’ice Chouffe (Belgium)
- Winter ale/strong ale
- Four pack 330 ml bottles, individual 750 ml bottles
- 10% abv
Holiday ales available elsewhere, usually available here but I haven’t seen them
- Deschutes Jubelale
- Six pack 12 oz bottles
- Winter Warmer
- 6.7% abv
- Allagash Snow Report
- “Celebratory Saison”
- Four-pack 16 oz cans
- “Honey character complemented by lavender and sandalwood”
- 8.6% abv
- De Dolle Stille Nacht (Belgium)
- Strong ale with candy sugar in the fermentation
- Four-pack 11.5 oz bottles
- 12% abv
- Avery Old Jubilation
- Strong ale (English-style Old Ale)
- Six pack 12 oz cans
- 8.3% abv
- Southern Tier 2XMAS Spiced Double Ale
- Spiced ale – orange peels, figs, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, ginger, “inspired by a “Glögg”
- Six pack 12 oz bottles
- 8% abv
Edmund J. McDevitt
©2023