When I think of Christmastime beers, I tend to conceptualize Winter Warmers, or dark spiced ales, or (as in the case of my own homebrewed version) strong/Old Ales styled after holiday fruitcakes. Rarely if ever has a beer inspired by a mulled drink crossed my mind—beer used as the base in a mulled drink, or a wassail, certainly. But not the other way around.

Well, western New York’s Southern Tier Brewing has gone that other way around and looked to Swedish Glogg for their inspiration for their Southern Tier 2XMas beer, which is new this year.

Swedish flags are a fairly common sight in our part of the country. Holiday parties often have warm concoctions of spices and booze at the ready to knock the ice off of toes while raising spirits. We were inspired by a “Glögg” party, deciding on the spot to brew a beer that pays tribute to this Nordic tradition. 2xMas Ale combines traditional brewing ingredients with figs, orange peels, cardamom, cinnamon, clove and ginger root. It’s a holiday addition to the 2X line and another reason to toast to the season, but unlike Glögg, we recommend serving this one chilled.

To get particularly Christmas-Inception-y you could use 2XMas in a wassail—so you would have a beer inspired by a mulled wine used to make a mulled ale… nevermind, we can let Santa sort that one out.

Untappd. Facebook. BeerAdvocate: 86/100. RateBeer: 3.49/5, 93rd percentile.