Today’s Advent beer pick indulges in another bit of whimsy, featuring one of the irreverent and punnily-named beers from England’s Ridgeway Brewery, which features a holiday lineup of a number of notable ales imported by Shelton Brothers of Maine. Santa’s Butt is a Winter Porter featuring a rotund St. Nick sitting on a barrel.

They said it couldn’t be done, but we did it: Santa’s Butt, the beer, coming to a theater near you for the holidays. It’s a splendid, satisfying Winter Porter at 6% — a souped-up version of the classic Entire Butt Porter that you’ve enjoyed in the past. Everyone wants a piece of Santa’s Butt.

This special porter is made for winter — rich and warming, the way they like it in the North Pole. It was inspired by this famous line from a well-loved children’s story book:

“And Santa sat on his great butt, drinking a hearty brew.”

In case you find that amusing, we hasten to point out that in England ‘butt’ refers to a certain barrel used in brewing — a very large barrel, in fact, holding 108 imperial gallons. Back in the day it was quite a normal thing for a brewery to put its beer up in a large butt for storage.

You may recall some years back a bit of controversy over the label; not for the name, but for the image of Santa Claus that might have appealed to children. Does the beer inside the bottle live up to the hype? Grab Santa’s Butt yourself and find out!

Find Ridgeway Santa’s Butt on:

• Untappd
• BeerAdvocate
• RateBeer