The Brew Site
Every year for the Advent Beer Calendar I’ve made it a tradition to select Anchor Christmas Ale for one of the days, and this year is no exception. The revitalization of Anchor under Fritz Maytag is in many ways the start of the revitalization of the American craft beer movement, … Continue reading
Today I’ve selected the “first Strong Winter Ale” from Brewery Ommegang out of New York, Ommegang Adoration. (Is this really their first Winter Ale?) Their own description may well be my favorite of the month, something I couldn’t have come up with better myself: Ommegang Adoration, brewed in the authentic … Continue reading
New Jersey-based Flying Fish Brewing Company is interesting because it was the first microbrewery founded “virtually” in 1995—literally starting life as a web page and an idea, with the actual brewery opening in 1996. Today’s beer is their Grand Cru Winter Reserve, a 7.2% Belgian Abbey-styled ale first released in … Continue reading
Today’s beer has been Great Divide Brewing Company‘s winter ale for a decade and a half, the award-winning Hibernation Ale. An English-style Old Ale, I noted with interested that pre-2009 vintages of Hibernation were 8.1% alcohol by volume, but since 2009 this went up to 8.7%. (Usually you’d expect to … Continue reading
Today’s pick is a French beer, hailing from Brasserie Larché in north-central France: Thomas Becket Bière de Noël. (Also referred to as Le Brassin de Noël on the website.) This Christmas Beer is 6.5% alcohol by volume, and the brewery says (loosely translated): Brassin Christmas is the heir to a … Continue reading
Up in the small Washington town of Gig Harbor (the “gateway to the Olympic Peninsula”) lives 7 Seas Brewing, open a year and a half and selling their beer in cans around the Seattle and Puget Sound area. This year they released Santa’s Smokin’ Winter Warmer, a 7.5% holiday ale … Continue reading
Today’s pick comes from beer writer Stan Hieronymus, author of the recently released Brewing with Wheat and who blogs at Appellation Beer. Stan selected The Lost Abbey’s Gift of the Magi and writes: Given the amount of grief the witches’ community brought down on Lost Abbey Brewing for the label … Continue reading
Today’s pick comes from SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta, Georgia: Festive Ale. SweetWater has been brewing since the late 90s and each year produces this 8.5% ABV spiced Winter Warmer. Winter Coat Season – A strong ale brewed with generous amounts of rich malt, coupled with a taint of cinnamon and … Continue reading
Today’s pick is inspired from a post from Hop Press contributor Raphael Rodrigues introducing South America’s Baden Baden Brewery and their Christmas Beer. Just over a decade old, Baden Baden is located in Campos Do Jordão in the state of São Paulo (and is just over 100 miles from the … Continue reading
Each year for the Advent Calendar I try to find a Hawaiian beer for one of the daily selections, but come up short: while Hawaii has a small number of breweries and brewpubs, I couldn’t find any that offered a winter or holiday ale (or at least, nothing that was … Continue reading