"I can't figure out how the American craft beer industry has missed this," Stephen Kirby shakes his head as he pulls me a sweet, malty Chin Wag ESB from a beer engine at Hogshead Brewery in Denver, Kirby makes as much cask-conditioned beers as anyone in the country at this little 1950's gas station-turned-brewery. He swears by this largely British process, and three cask-conditioned masterpieces later, I was on board with him.

Due to the widely reported accounts of rapturous jubilance and reduced madness throughout America following our Winter Warmer edition of the "What The Hell" series and our subsequent publishing of 5 more Winter Ales, we have no choice but to give the public more of what they demand.

It's time again for the holidays to hijack our lives and hold our normal routine ransom until we spend copious amounts of money and gorge ourselves with food. But if you're like me and you're not ready to go through the same tedious holiday schedule, then try spicing things up a bit with, you guessed it, craft beer!

Hey we get it. You're busy with holiday shopping and end-of-the-year office parties and you can't hang with us 24/7. But we still don't want you to be missing all the good stuff. And as we're currently in the thick of the holiday season - you need to be checking out all the "Winter Holiday" craft beer bits we've been doing lately.

So welcome to our Special Holiday Wrap-Up...and we promise we'll be done with all this seasonal stuff once you've taken down all those ridiculous decorations.

Yikes Christmas is almost here...and clearly nothing is slowing down anytime soon. But even at this time of year, Rumor Mill is on the case, keeping you plugged in to all the craft beer news, and anything else that we think matters. Plus we've an all-important update on what we've been drinking lately and you absolutely don't want to miss that.

We all know what it's like when the holidays roll around each year:  Christmas music, Black Friday sales, Santas everywhere and a general reveling in the holiday spirit. There are candles to be lit, dreidels to be spun, a baby born in a barn and all manner of family traditions as the winter begins to creep in. Amid all this joy and love, there's also a lot of stress, social calls, presents to be wrapped and wired children to corral. So here are five different well-crafted beers we suggest offering loved ones for your feast or simply as a brief escape from the madness of the holidays.

You might get the impression that we, the beer gurus of ACB, understand all there is to know about beer, yet we're still learning just like you. It's this thirst for knowledge that drives us to dig deeper into the stories behind the beer we drink. It's our goal to protect you from the embarrassment of not knowing exactly what it is you've decided to put in your mouth or even worse, what you stick in someone else's...

So welcome to the latest in our ongoing series (drum roll please...) "What the Hell is a Winter Warmer?"

So many holiday beers- To little time...You may be over all these winter seasonals and special holiday releases - but we're not here at ACB. And like it or not - we've more beers that will pair insanely well with that fruitcake that you've been unable to get rid of - and we're not backing off until February! 

If you haven't already tapped into one of our many Holiday Guides - we've no sympathy for you. You could have already had something wonderful for that craft beer lover on your list. But instead you're drinking too much and in a desperate scramble for something (anything!) that might please. With Christmas just days away, It's simply too late for us to help you with big craft beer gift ideas (that's on you).

But stocking stuffers? We can help you with stocking stuffers... 

We blame the industry for this... It used to be that when we wrapped up our Weekend Picks on Friday, we could coast through the weekend. There was little need to check in for updates - things were pretty much done. But clearly all that's changed.

So here's some of what's happened in the world of craft beer while you were off enjoying yourselves.