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(Courtesy Sierra Nevada Brewing)
With Thanksgiving now behind us, the winter holiday season is officially ON. And when that snow starts to fall you’re gonna need the right beers.
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Thanksgiving always marks the start of the winter holiday season…. Christmas trees start appearing on cars and holiday beers start showing up at retail…And one of our favorites is Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.
A lot of winter seasonals tend towards the strong and the sweet, Celebration’s different. As far as we know, it’s the only fresh hop holiday ale out there and that alone makes it unique. First brewed in 1981, Sierra Nevada Celebration is a 6.8% ABV India Pale Ale and because it’s a fresh-hop IPA it’s subtly different every year.
(Courtesy Ska Brewing)
Ska Peppermint Bark Stout
Ska Brewing has a great new holiday release which marks a decade of the Durango, Colorado brewery’s seasonal Stout experimentation– which has included past classics like Hibernal Vinifera, Autumnal Molé, Estival Cream, and Vernal Minthe Stout.
Crafted with actual peppermint bark (white chocolate, dark chocolate, and candy canes) made in Durango by the Animas Chocolate Company, Ska Peppermint Bark Stout is a 7.5 holiday pleaser that deserves a place in Dad’s Christmas stocking.
“Peppermint bark was invented by Williams Sonoma in 1998,” said Ska Brewing Co-Founder and CEO Dave Thibodeau. “Turns out we opened the brewery before peppermint bark was officially a thing, but the chocolate and candy cane combination goes back as long as most of us can remember.”
(Courtesy Sycamore Brewing)
Sycamore Christmas Cookie Winter Ale 2022
Charlotte, NC-based Sycamore Brewing’s annual holiday release is beloved for both its taste and its playful, slightly-naughty label designs. The 2019 cans featured reindeer in various sexual positions and after an anonymous tip, the North Carolina ABC forced the brewery to pull the cans from retail shelves.
Brewed with actual sugar cookies added to the mash, Sycamore Christmas Cookie Winter Ale 2022 is a 7.5% ABV Blonde Ale with a caramel malt backbone and cheerful notes of sugar cookie dough, warm winter spices, and honey. And this year Sycamore is also returning Barrel-Aged Christmas Cookie an amped up 8.1% ABV seasoned take on the original which was aged for 12 months in bourbon barrels.
This year’s suggestive Christmas Cookie can art features elves packaging up risqué items for mom and dad amid items like teddy bears and scooters for the kids. The Barrel-Aged Christmas Cookie’s can art is a bit more PG and shows elves packaging up barrels of beer in their holiday sweaters. Upon closer inspection, it turns out the elves are wearing sweaters that echo the artwork of Christmas Cookie’s past.
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