For today’s Beer Advent Calendar pick we travel to Italy to visit the lauded Birra Baladin. For the Christmas season they offer up a strong, coffee-infused specialty: their Nöel Cafè.

It’s the beer which Teo dedicates to Christmas. Following our tradition, it is a top fermented, non pasteurized beer, which is refermented in the bottle. It is dark in color, has a full body and is very aromatic. It is brewed at the end of summer to give it the time to ferment and mature slowly in the bottle for a long period of time, so that it is ready to express all its complex aromatic scents once opened. The persistent head enhances the complex aromas of dried fruit, biscuit, chocolate and, this year, coffee! We have chosen no ordinary coffee: its name is “Terre Alte” and is a very sweet blend with spicy and fruity flavors. It is the result of the combination between two fine indigenous mountain coffee plants – both Slow Food Presidia – from Guatemala (Huehuetenango) and Honduras (Montagna Campara). The coffee is wood roasted at the Turin detention facility, thus completing an approach based on solidarity and sustainability.

The base style is something of a Belgian strong dark ale, and at 9% abv with coffee this might well be one of the most interesting beers you’d find under your tree this year. Cheers!

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