Today’s pick comes from beer writer Stan Hieronymus, author of the recently released Brewing with Wheat and who blogs at Appellation Beer. Stan selected The Lost Abbey’s Gift of the Magi and writes:

Given the amount of grief the witches’ community brought down on Lost Abbey Brewing for the label on Witch’s Wit it seems fair to ask when lawyers representing the Dwarf Camel’s Guild will be knocking on the brewery’s doors. Have you taken a good look at how big the three kings on the front of Gift of the Magi are compared to what Lost Abbey brewing maestro Tomme Arthur describes as “Shetland” camels?

That’s one heavy beer, dude.

Seriously, at 10% abv this is a substantial Christmas cake, served from a 750ml bottle that says “share me.” A lot going on, underlying bready texture and flavors, dried fruit including figs and plums, brightly spicy, funky without being barnyardy (though if it were a wine you’d send it back).

This particular bottle is from 2009, and tasting like it will be just as interesting in a few years. Certainly Gift of the Magi merits laying down as a present for future holidays. Think of the penultimate paragraph of O’Henry’s parable:

“Dell,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ’em a while. They’re too nice to use just at present.”

BeerAdvocate: B+. RateBeer: 3.66/5, 97th percentile.