12 Beers of Christmas: Craft Beers to Celebrate the Holiday Season

When the weather dips down and the dulcet tones of Michael Buble assault my ear drums, it is time for two things: taking my bath and the colossal selection of holiday-themed craft beers.  We are not only lucky in this market to have local breweries concocting delicious holiday and seasonal offerings, but we also get many of the best national selections to fill our tulip glasses and pair with our holiday feasts.  I contend that if the Grinch had been able to savor the deliciousness of Indeed Stir Crazy, his holiday disposition would have been much different.  It is indeed a wonderful time of year and below you will find my list of 12 Beers of Christmas!  These beers go well, but are not limited to the following occasions: holiday work parties, family gatherings, helping one get through the wall to wall holiday music on Kool 108, happy hours with friends, family holiday fun, Bikram Yoga class, dealing with holiday shopping, waiting up for St. Nick to arrive, celebrating making it through your Festivus Airing of Grievances, and the wall to wall holiday music on Kool 108.  Whether you are with others in a crowd, or just at home relaxing by yourself, these yummy yuletide libations will take the chill out of the air and dazzle your palate with a variety of holiday flavor sensations.  While this is a list, there is no order.  This is a list of beers, of which each one offers something special that you will enjoy in your holiday season.  So, without further ado, I present my 12 beers of Christmas.




Indeed Stir Crazy-This Winter Ale is 6.5% ABV and 22 IBUs.  Stir Crazy is available in the taproom and most liquor stores starting in November and lasts usually until February.    It has a dark brown, and slightly dark reddish color with a slight to medium head.  This beer has a very nice roasted malt aroma, with a subtle hint of coffee.  The flavors of dark chocolate, vanilla, caramel and raisin intensify as it warms, so make sure you are not drinking it too cold.  There is just a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg spice in this beer which is nice because many people find overdoing of spices in a beer off-putting.  The mouthfeel is medium and the dark color of this beer makes it seem like the beer is heavier than it is.  It is not overly sweet and almost has a dry finish.  At 6.5% ABV, this is a very drinkable beer that will still take the chill out of your bones.



Bau Haus Brew Labs Jingle Fever-This Baltic Porter is 8% ABV and 20 IBUs.  This is a beer style that I am not all that familiar with and was very eager to try.  As most porters are very roasty in their aroma, the roasted malt character in this beer is more subtle.  However, that is not to say that it is lacking in flavor and depth.  It drinks smooth and velvety with the bittersweet chocolate and caramel notes and a nice black licorice flavor.  If you are dealing with a few humbugs at the work mixer, knock a few of these back and suddenly you will be riding the one-horse sleigh to fun town!




Summit Winter Ale-This beer is 6.5% ABV and 40 IBUs.  Summit Winter Ale has become synonymous with my holiday imbibing over the years.  Trust me on this, you will not regret getting a sixer of this to bring to the in-laws for some holiday cheer.   I know that there are people out there who often bypass Summit to have something trendier.  However, this is a great representation of the Winter Warmer style and has flirted with my palate for years with its nice nutty, roasty and malty flavor.  It drinks really smooth and goes well with many holiday foods like ham or a nice roasted prime rib.  For me, this is the beer I always drink when I am out at my favorite wing joint with my buddies.  So, to say that this beer is representative of the embodiment of holiday cheer is an understatement.  




Schell's Snowstorm Grand Cru-This beer is 6.5% ABV and 20 IBUs.  This is a bit of a departure from the dark and velvety Winter Warmers that are readily available during this time.  This is part of a series from Schell's that is a little different every year in regards to the style.  This year's rendition is an incredibly refreshing Grand Cru.  The aromas of citrus, esters and slight coriander are really bright.  It drinks very clean with a nice carbonation effervescence.  There is a slight chocolate hint that is an homage to the wonderful marriage of orange and chocolate.  This beer drinks lighter than the 6.5 ABV would suggest and because of that, is one of the more approachable beers on this list.



Bad Weather Ominious Midwest Warmer-This beer is 7.5% ABV and 40 IBUs.   The first thing I notice before I even take a sip is how amazing this beer smells.  The roasted malt character is so enticing and then you add in the hints of chocolate and coffee and I am ready for the snowdrifts to force me to stay home and read Garfield's 5th Treasury by the fire.  The beer is medium bodied and is very smooth.  Barry White would have absolutely loved this beer.  It is remarkably effervescent for having as much body as it does.  This is probably not the first thing that you think of when you think winter beers, but if you give this a try, you will be rewarded with a very solid drinking experience.



Lift Bridge Commander Barley Wine-This beer is 12.5% ABV and 75 IBUs.  This is a special beer.  The aroma has notes of bourbon barrel, vanilla and some slight cardamom spice.  There is no head on the beer and it is amber in appearance.  This beer is complex and is perfect for the season.  It is very balanced and there is very little hop bitterness.  The malty sweetness is the main act in this flavor show and as it warms, the flavors intensify.  The cardamom is used sparingly, and yet, it has a definite presence in the beer.  What a perfect beer for a nice cold night when all you have to worry about is which really good cheese are you going to pair with your snifter of Commander.





Great Lakes Christmas Ale-This beer is 7.5% ABV and 30 IBUs.  This beer is so easy drinking and delicious.  The spice is done with a deft hand and the hints of honey and cinnamon come through in a very pleasing way.  This beer is a mainstay for me and I have been lucky enough to have this in my kegerator during the holidays for the last couple of years.  Most of the people who come over and try this beer wind up enjoying it and by the end of the night are big fans of its drinkability and approachable flavor.  This is the beer that I want to be drinking when I am sharing a laugh at a holiday party with my family and friends.  This beer is as harmonious as the sound of the laughter that fills your home when you have people over to celebrate the holidays.




Odell Isolation Ale-This beer is 6.1% ABV and 29 IBUs.  This beer is a straight-forward ale with a very subtle aroma of cookie-like malt.  The flavor is balanced with caramel malt flavor and a subtle dry hoppiness.  This is the least spicy of all the beers on this list and would be a nice alternative for someone who doesn't enjoy too much spice in their beer.  It drinks smooth, like most of Odell's beers, it is very approachable and you will definitely want to have more than one of these!







Deschutes Jubelale-This beer is 6.7% ABV and 60 IBUs.  The smell of roasted malt along with some slight spice is very inviting.  This beer has a definite hop presence that is noticeable in the finish.  The flavor is roasty, somewhat sweet and toffee-like.  This beer is smooth and balanced.  As it warms up, the flavor of raisins and dates is more obvious.  This beer is very smooth for having as much of a hop presence as it does.  Deschutes is always a great choice, no matter what time of year it is.  However, you would be wise to add this to your holiday beer list and just pray that Santa saw you being nice this year. . .



Southern Tier Old Man Winter Ale-This beer is 7%ABV in the style of an Old Ale.  This has a nice aroma of earthy hops along with a boozy aroma with a hint of smokiness.  The color is a beautiful reddish brown and looks magnificent in a snifter.  Old Man Winter is robust and has a good body.  One can definitely tell they are drinking a 7% ABV beer.  I still have yet to try a Southern Tier offering that I don't like.  This beer is definitely a nice sipper and almost tastes boozier than it is.  It has a very good hop flavor that cuts through the booziness of the beer.





Rogue Santa's Private Reserve-This beer is 6% ABV and 65 IBUs.  This beer has a very floral hop aroma.  The head is rocky with nice retention.  The flavor is very earthy and clean at the start.  That transitions to a piney and resiny hop flavor that stays on the tongue for a bit until it finishes very dry.  Based on this beer, I am thinking that Santa is definitely a hop lover.  It makes perfect sense, after spending all night long drinking milk and eating cookies he needs something hoppy to balance out all those sweets.








Great Divide Hibernation Ale-This beer is 8.7% ABV.  This is an English Style Old Ale.  It is has a rich and malty aroma with hints of roasted malt and coffee.  It drinks smooth and medium bodied without feeling heavy.  The malt and booze in the beer balance really well with the hoppy notes.  The color of this beer is a really beautiful hue of reddish brown.  This is the essence of a Winter Warmer as it really does take the chill out of the air.  I enjoyed this in my living room as we put up the holiday decorations and it was the perfect compliment to the nostalgia that comes along with this time of year.





As always, our mission at Beerploma is to educate and promote craft beer, locally and nationally.  Since this is the season for sharing and good cheer, head on down to your local craft beer store and maybe make yourself up a holiday six pack to bring to the next gathering on your calendar.  I am sure that you will find something on this list that you would want to have on your wish list.  My hope is that you find yourself enjoying this great season for merriment and laughter with the people that you find most important.  Beerploma wishes you all a very happy holiday season and please let me know if there are any of your favorites that I should go out and try.  As the season progresses, I will be enjoying many of these beers myself, as well as a Swiss Colony Beef Log or two.  Prost!

Craft Beers That Make You Go Hmm: My Evolution As A Craft Beer Drinker

Throughout one's life, there are many memorable journeys.  Whether it is a job, a relationship, or in this case, the evolution of a beer palate, the destination is immaterial.  However, there is an enormity of importance in the steps along the way of that journey that stick in one's memory.  As people look back at how their tastes in beer have changed over the years, it can be pleasant and nostalgic to take stock of where they started and how far they have come.

Everyone starts somewhere when it comes to beer.  I remember, with a moderate level of fondness, my first encounter with the sudsy siren Busch Light.  It was in a dingy basement of a college house over by the University of St. Thomas.  It was Halloween and some friends and I were intrepidly going to see if we could get into a house party that we had caught wind of.  Dressed to the nines as a woman of the night, complete with hollowed-coconuts to add to my hourglass figure, I was skeptical about getting into this party.  I don't know if it was my plunging neckline or their pity for my appearance, but we were let in, paid our five dollars for a cup, and headed downstairs to the keg.  The warm and foamy liquid erupted boisterously from the tap thanks to the stooge who was vigorously over-pumping the keg.  As soon as the beer hit my lips, I began thinking that I didn't understand what all the fuss was about.  I guess that back in those days, the main reason to drink a light domestic beer wasn't to measure it pointedly for taste and aroma, but a necessary first step in a beer journey that has lead me to where I am today.  I pondered why so many people raved about beer, and as I choked down the skunky, room-temperature libation, I realized that beer was meant to make one think.  As many of the other Halloween revelers that evening, I drank my fair share of Busch Light and there were even some Zimas thrown in at the end of the night for good measure.  What I wanted to know after that was where was the good beer?  Why did I just pay five dollars for a cup of slightly flavored watery disappointment?

Fast forward to several years later.  I was done with college and had a stable job and wanted to get more into beer.  Since the Busch Light debacle, I had tried several other beers, mostly domestic, but had really not found a beer that I liked.  They say that everything happens for a reason and that good things come to those who wait.  I was out in South Dakota for a surprise birthday party for my in-laws and we were hanging around drinking.  Someone brought out a 12-pack of beer from a brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado.  I had never even heard of this brewery before and was immediately curious.  This beer was only available in Colorado and its bordering states: New Belgium Fat Tire.  Now, up until this point, the only craft beers I had tried were from Schell's and Summit.  I had also tried other beers and found that I tended to prefer malty over hoppy as a flavor profile.  I was offered a bottle of this special beer and I immediately took a swig.  Remember that scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High when Phoebe Cates emerges slowly from the swimming pool in an aura of scintillation and desire while poured perfectly into a red bikini?  Well, that was exactly the energy that had captivated my taste buds, olfactory senses and overall mainframe.  This beer had flavor, depth, and had aroused my palate.  I mentally teleported back to that house party in college and the Busch Light and thought that the flavor present in this bottle of Fat Tire is the reason people drink beer!  This amazing example of how beer can be something that can totally blow the doors off your senses ignited a passion for finding more beer like this.  I was feverish, my eyes were bugging out of my head, and then a sobering reality hit me, like a bocce ball to the crotch in an America's Funniest Home Videos first prize submission; this beer was not available anywhere close to where I lived.  I only got to try one bottle and I did my best to savor it, desperately trying to commit every taste, smell, sight and feeling to memory.  Fat Tire was a revelation and was my gateway beer.  It opened a floodgate of yearning to try more craft beers with unique flavors that represented different styles.  I felt like Navin R. Johnson in The Jerk, if this is out there, think of how much other great beer was out there.  And just like that, I was hooked.

In the summer of 2006, I visited by sister and her boyfriend in Cleveland, Ohio.  My first night there we were heading out to get some dinner and my sister's better half suggested that we try a great local brewery called Great Lakes Brewing Company.  I was excited because I had never before been to a brewery.  I had consumed a fair amount of beer, but still considered myself a craft beer novice.  My beers of choice at that time were Blue Moon, Schell's, Summit and any random thing that a friend brought over.  I thought that it was pretty interesting that a brewery would also have its own restaurant.  What I noticed immediately was that there were many things on the menu that paired well with beer.  I thought this curious because up until that point, I thought beer was only used to boil brats before throwing them on the grill.  Then I began looking at the menu and I became intrigued; there were eight different beers on tap all brewed on site!  I felt like I had to try them all so I ordered the entire list that came in the form of five ounce samples of each beer.  It ran the gamut from things I was familiar with, to styles I had never even heard of before.  If the New Belgium Fat Tire was my gateway beer, this was my craft beer enlightenment!  As I worked my way down the list, it was like sensory whack-a-mole, hoppy, earthy, malty, citrusy, and many more flavors and textures.  However, there was one that stood out to me above all the rest and cemented itself as one of my forever favorites; the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.  This beer had everything I had been looking for in a malt-forward beer.  It was dark, smooth, roasty and malty.  I felt like I had died and gone to palate heaven.  I remember thinking that it was the perfect level of heaviness for me.  As we walked out of the brewpub, I remember thinking to myself that it would be so incredible if they could ever get something like this in MN.  It was maybe 2 years later when I was strolling down the aisle at Big Top Liquors on University and Snelling that I saw an endcap display with that recognizable ship in the fog, the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter had finally made its way to MN along with several other of the Great Lakes flagship beers.  I grabbed two six packs of Edmund Fitzgerald and one sixer of Elliot Ness and headed home with a smile on my face and drool running down the side of my face,

We have all had a situation where we happen to be at the right place at the right time.  I was browsing the local liquor store on a Friday night in the fall and it was shortly after I had tried, Harvest Moon, a pumpkin ale from Blue Moon Brewing Company.  I was looking for another pumpkin beer to try and asked the gentleman who was working if he had anything similar to or better than the Harvest Moon.  His face suddenly transformed from jovial and relaxed to paranoid and tense. He leaned in very suspiciously and asked, "Would you pay 8 dollars for the best pumpkin beer in the world?"  I told him that would be great and he disappeared into the back room.  At this point, I was thinking that perhaps that beer that he was about to bring out was either stolen from the same Libyans that sold Doc Brown Plutonium in Back to the Future, or the bottle came with a complementary human head and that is why the salesman was being so weird.  To my relief, he brought out a 22 ounce bomber of a beer called Pumking from Southern Tier Brewing Company.  I had never heard of the brewery of the beer.  The next part of the transaction got very strange and he gave me some very explicit instructions for drinking the beer.  He told me that I need to let the beer warm up a bit first or I might as well have flushed my money down the toilet.  I should drink it out of a goblet and not just a pint glass.  As he kept rambling on in a manner that bordered on hysterical, I started to wonder if this bottle would turn into a Gremlin if I didn't take proper care of it.  I paid for my beer, drove home and began the ritual of preparing to imbibe the Pumking.  I found a wine glass in the cupboard that I felt would suffice for a true goblet and set it out on the counter while I watched television for a while.  After about a half hour, I came back and felt like it was time.  I dimmed the lights, put on some Barry White and wrote my safe-word on the back of my hand just in case I forgot it in the heat of passion.  The first thing that I remember about this beer was how absolutely strong the aroma of graham cracker was as I brought it up to my nose.  It was like I was about to drink a pie crust or a gingerbread man cookie.  Then I took my first sip; my mind began doing somersaults and my palate sang as a myriad of flavors paraded on my tongue.  I could not understand how a beer could so effectively mimic the sensation of eating pumpkin pie.  This beer was so complex and unlike anything I had ever before consumed.  Had I known how hard to find this beer would be, I would have bought more than one.  I did not encounter this beer again for another three  years.  However, that flavor and memory of how much my palate was challenged by Pumking was another highlight in my journey as a beer drinker.

Every year around the holidays, one of my favorite liquor stores does an event called "Beer Geek Christmas," which is an amazing all-day event and beer sale.  They have amazing products that get released for that day and incredible beers to sample in the store.  Because of my day job, I wasn't able to get there until the tail end of things and I got there and headed downstairs to where they had a keg of Surly Five, an anniversary beer that was a wine barrel-aged sour beer.  I thought that sour really didn't seem to be an appealing flavor profile in a beer.  I had never had a sour beer before and thought that I would try it and see how it went.  Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick, was it ever good!  I really liked the tartness and funky flavors that were having a party in my mouth.  The more I kept sipping it, the more I liked it.  I mentioned earlier in the article that a good beer should really make you think about what you are drinking.  A good beer should have your dendrites working overtime as your brain processes what you are drinking.  Good beer should not just be something you drink to get drunk because far too much effort and thought went into brewing it to make it just a way to make reruns of Cagney and Lacey more tolerable.  The first time I had a sour beer, I didn't have the beer knowledge to process what I was drinking and yet I enjoyed it because it was a knee to my flavor circuit board.  Now, anytime I get a chance to drink a sour beer, I jump at the opportunity and I am almost mentally transported back to my first Beer Geek Christmas, when I hopped aboard the sour beer train.

At Beerploma, we do our best to bring you the news and reviews of what is happening on the local Minnesota beer scene.  However, whenever I get the chance, I like to take a beercation to a place with a thriving craft beer scene.  Last spring, I spent 10 days tasting my way through 26 different breweries in Colorado.  I drank stellar examples of every beer style under the sun out there and was able to check many craft beers off of my bucket list.  When most people think Fort Collins, Colorado, they think of the bigger breweries there like Odell and New Belgium, but there was are many up and comers that are etching out their own territory out in the land of craft beer immortality.  Funkwerks Inc., is a smaller brewery in Fort Collins, CO that brews mainly Saisons and Belgian-style beers.  The beer I had at Funkwerks Inc. that forever changed how I thought about beer was their Belgian Stout.  It was a drinking experience that I will never forget because, in one beer, they were able to include everything I love from two completely different beer styles.  It smelled like peanut brittle and had a tremendous roasted malt character.  Then, in the next split second I was enjoying the distinct yeast properties that are associated with Belgian beers.  Maybe you are thinking, "Wait, I have never heard of that style!" and you are hitting on why I love craft beer in this country.  There are style guidelines, and in a lot of other places in the world like Germany or Belgium, these style guidelines are ironclad and never deviated from for fear of violating hundreds of years of tradi
tion.  Funkwerks Inc. is a great brewery because they brew mostly one style that has been around for hundreds of years and their representations of that style or spot-on.  However, it is also their ability to play in the beer recipe sandbox and use creativity to create things that are not commonplace.  The Funkwerks Belgian Stout rounds out my list of five beers that have helped me evolve as a beer drinker.


In the US, brewers are not just brewing, they are innovating and trailblazing.  They are constantly forging new paths and stepping outside of the style guide boundaries to see what amazing mouth-feels and flavors they can wow our palates with.  We are seeing the golden age of craft beer evolve before our very eyes.  What will the national craft beer scene be like in five years?  What new styles will be created and what old styles will be brought back?  Only time will tell.  One thing is certain, craft beer will continue to make us think and push the boundaries of taste and style.

Craft Beers to Enjoy on Halloween

When I was a young buck, my favorite holiday, by far, was Halloween.  I remember one particular year, when I was 8, I began making Halloween decorations in July.  Yes, you read that right; when other kids were out riding their bikes, skinning their knees and playing kickball, I was busy cutting construction paper into bats, Jack-O-lanterns and ghosts.  Wearing paper cuts as badges of courage, I turned my bedroom into an arts and crafts display that would have given Martha Stewart DTs.  As Halloween got closer, my anticipation worked itself into a rabid fervor, and by the time October rolled around and by October 31st, I was a full-on spazz.

As an adult, my enthusiasm for this spooky holiday has not waned.  Through therapy and the necessity of paying the mortgage, I no longer am making Halloween decorations in July, however, I have found a grown-up way to embrace my child-like love for All Hallows Eve: Halloween appropriate beers!  Obviously, there is no defined category of Halloween beers, but with cool artwork on the bottles and creative names, many of these beers jump out at me as I am walking through the aisle of my local craft beer store.  What I have come to discover over the years is that these beers are not only visually appealing, but also incredibly delicious and unique.

So, here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite craft beers that scream Halloween.

1.  Great Lakes Brewing Company Nosferatu.  I mentioned earlier being obsessed with Halloween, but what I didn't mention was the for 6 out of the 9 years I went trick or treating, I went dressed as a rubber chicken-toting vampire.  A unique take on Count Dracula, for sure.  This beer also has a unique connection to vampire lore.  The label art and name of this beer is an homage to the 1922 vampire movie.  This beer is a remarkably balanced Imperial Red Ale that you will be sure to want to sink your teeth into.

2.  New Holland Ichabod.  This beer is named for the unlikely hero, Ichabod Crane, from Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  The label has an awesome depiction of the Headless Horseman riding a horse, getting ready to terrorize your thirst.  This pumpkin ale is spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and is very drinkable at 5.2%.  At that reasonable ABV, it is the perfect beer to drink while you spend Friday evening handing out candy.  Better yet, if you play the drinking game that necessitates you taking a drink every time you see someone dressed as Elsa from Disney's Frozen, you will still be able to function the next day

3.  Surly Pentagram.  I believe it was Adam Sandler's 1996 comedy album, What The Hell Happened To Me? track about joining the cult that said, "The night time is the right time."  This beer begs to be consumed on a ghoulish evening filled with goblins and ghosts.  This sour beer that is brewed right here in MN has awesomely demonic bottle art and is topped with wax.  The flavors are complex and funky and the ABV is 6.66% which is apropos for this dark and magical sour beer.

4.  Southern Tier Warlock.  You don't have to have a collection of 20-sided dice and a dingy basement to enjoy this deliciously arcane ale.  This beer has only been on the market for two years, but is already considered by many to be in a class by itself.  Warlock is a stout brewed with pumpkin spices.  I first consumed this beer while giving out Halloween candy last year and was also mixing and matching candy pairings.  It didn't take long before I was under the Warlock's spell.  Available in 22 oz. bombers, this limited offering is sought after by many, so if you see it, grab it.

This list is just the tip of the tombstone, but you get the idea.  I don't go trick or treating anymore and I retired the rubber chicken.  However, I still am giddy when I start to see these beers on the shelves in the liquor stores, or on tap at my favorite haunts around town.  I would love to hear which Halloween selections put a scare in your snifter, so feel free to list your favorites in the comments section below.  Cheers!