Today’s Advent beer pick has a mouthful of a name and is one I just couldn’t resist: Gigantic Brewing The Cat Ate My Stash and Pissed on the Xmas Tree, billed as a “Festive IPA.” It’s a rather descriptive name to match the particular character of the hops in this IPA. Here’s the description from its Untappd page:

Inspired by the enigmatic John Mallett of Bell’s Brewery, this festive IPA is loaded with the dankest, sticky, drippy, and piney hops the Gigantic brewers could get their hands on.

This festive and dank IPA from the Portland, Oregon-based brewer debuted at the 2018 Holiday Ale Festival in Portland, and returned again this year. The Cat… is available on draft and in 500ml bottles, and is 7.5% ABV and 85 IBUs. As for the name? Here’s a quote from the Brewpublic article about it last year:

The name comes from the following statement made by John Mallett dates back to 2013 when he was asked about Bell’s Brewery’s new beer Hopslam. He stated, “I’m going to have a beer that we make 4,000 barrels of, one time a year. It flies off the shelf at damn near $20 a six-pack, and you know what it smells like? It smells like your cat ate your weed and then pissed in the Christmas tree.”

This is definitely not your father’s Christmas beer but it is definitely one for the hopheads this holiday season. I’d suggest opening up a bottle as you trim your tree this year.

Find Gigantic The Cat Ate My Stash and Pissed on the Xmas Tree on:

• Untappd
• BeerAdvocate
• RateBeer
• Facebook