For today’s Advent beer pick let’s drop in to St. Louis, Missouri, to visit Perennial Artisan Ales, and scare up a bottle of its Belgian-inspired bière de Noël, a strong dark ale with 10% alcohol by volume, Fête de Noël. It’s a “Christmas party” of a brew that just begs to be shared with family and friends (in a pandemic-safe manner, of course!).

Here’s a description I pulled from the brewery’s Facebook page:

Fetê de Noël is a strong Belgian-style Christmas ale spiced with fresh orange zest and fresh rosemary and fermented on raisins. At 10% abv (like we do), it’s great for sharing and should cellar well.

It’s not too often that you see rosemary as an ingredient in beer, but it’s thematically appropriate in a Christmas beer as prior to the twentieth century the herb was as popular a Christmas plant as holly and mistletoe, and can even be shaped like a miniature Christmas tree.

Established in 2011, Perennial takes inspiration largely from Belgian and American styles, with a focus on the use of local and seasonal ingredients in many of its small batch beers, covering a wide range of styles “with the adventurous craft beer drinker in mind.”

Find Perennial Artisan Ales Fête de Noël on:

• Untappd
• BeerAdvocate
• RateBeer
• Facebook

Image credits: Perennial’s Facebook page.