Here in my hometown of Bend, Oregon, the annual Community Christmas Tree Lighting takes place downtown tonight, so I have Christmas trees on the mind—hence my pick for today’s Advent beer, hailing from Ohio’s Homestead Beer Company: Tannenbaum Christmas Ale.

The name of course hearkens to “O Tannenbaum,” the German Christmas carol, referring to a Christmas tree (a Tannenbaum is a fir tree). Homestead’s version is a spiced winter warmer, described as:

Erupting with ginger, clove, cinnamon and spice – it’s everything nice and everything naughty all wrapped in a perfect package.

It’s an amber, caramelly ale brewed with copious amounts of fresh ginger as well as other spices, and is 7.3% ABV. Descriptive brewer’s notes on the BeerAdvocate page for the beer say:

We layered an insane dose of ginger with a combination of other spices to build a deep, entrancing spicy nose that just goes and goes and goes. Below that, we crafted a deep, caramel flavored malt note and backed it up with just enough hop bitterness and aroma to bring the whole beer together. It plants itself solidly in the Winter Warmer territory by topping out 7.3% ABV but it stays a remarkably drinkable beer even at that size.

Homestead was founded in 2011 and opened its brewery in Heath, Ohio to the public in 2013. Originally just a production brewery, it wasn’t until Ohio law changed to allow breweries to operate a taproom on their manufacturing premises that Homestead was able to open its own and serve on-premise. The brewery is the largest in Ohio’s Licking County, and since 2020, the company has opened two additional locations.

Seek out the brewery’s Tannenbaum; this spicy, warming ale would be a terrific accompaniment to your Christmas tree trimming this year, along with gingerbread and gingersnaps!

Find Homestead Beer Company Tannenbaum Christmas Ale on:

• Untappd
• BeerAdvocate
• RateBeer
• Facebook

Image credits: Homestead’s website and Facebook page.