We are getting close to the end, with Christmas day only four days away! Today’s Advent beer pick comes from British Columbia, Canada, and Parallel 49 Brewing in Vancouver: one of their “rarities,” Black Christmas CDA. Normally “CDA” would stand for Cascadian Dark Ale, but Parallel 49 plays with it a bit to give us Christmas Dark Ale.

This beer does away with Vanilla and spices common in Christmas ales and delivers hops and bitterness. A new style of beer developed in the Pacific Northwest, this CDA is hopped like an IPA but is dark in colour. Local hops were used to build the hop flavour and aroma.

It’s 6.5% alcohol by volume with 65 IBUs and is a fun counterpoint to the “White Christmas” I featured back on the 9th. Hopefully your Christmas is “black” only in this way! Cheers!

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