With the 2019 holidays behind us, Liberty Brew Tours is taking a look back at some of the season’s best Christmas beers !
There are some great holiday brews. Delirium Noël, St. Bernardus Christmas, and Corsendonk Christmas Ale are some of the best-known.
This year, though, we looked for something a bit different. Which beer truly exemplifies Christmas ? Which beer has that aroma and flavor that seems like the brewer managed to bottle (or can) Christmas ?
To that end, we sampled 16 Christmas-themed beers in pursuit of the most Christmas-y brew of all. It had to be good, obviously, but this wasn’t purely a search for the best of the bunch – we were out to find Christmas in a glass.
Here’s what we came up with !
The Christmas beers
Rogue Brewing – Santa’s Reserve (2019): A mix of caramel and maple. Apparently this has mushrooms in it. Mushrooms don’t really scream Christmas, though.
St. Bernardus Christmas Ale (2019): A Belgian quad that clocks in at over 10% ABV. Fairly malty with a lot of dark fruits and spices. Always a fan favorite, but not uniquely Christmas.
Corsendonk Christmas Ale (2019): Lightly spiced with nutmeg. A great beer and fits our target profile well.
Abita Christmas Ale: A flavorless entry that was rock-bottom on everyone’s list.
Southern Tier 2xmas: Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and figs round out the taste on this entry from a brewery known for their seasonal and dessert beers. The aroma is purely magical, with pie-like spices apparent immediately upon opening.
Port Brewing Santa’s Little Helper (2019): Roasty espresso, but slightly watered down for my taste. This beer was a big deal back in the day, but it’s been left behind.
Anchor Brewing Special Ale (2019): Anchor has been producing iterations of this beer for 45 years ! 2019 wasn’t too well received, and seemed a bit lacking overall compared to many past generations.
Delirium Noël: Widely considered the frontrunner for this competition, Noel is another winter warmer style ale/Belgian strong with spices and a big malt backbone.
Two Roads Holiday Ale: A biere de garde brewed for Christmas, this one’s too malty without much else going for it to fit into the Christmas mold.
Shiner Holiday Cheer: A macro entry, this has a peach extract flavor that’s sort of Christmas reminiscent in a peach pie kind of way.
Bell’s Christmas Ale: A caramel-heavy scotch ale, this neither hit the Christmas spot nor stood out as a particularly good beer in general. Bell’s has some amazing brews but this is distinctly average.
Troeg’s Mad Elf (2019): A particularly local entry, this beer creates a frenzy upon release every year. Quality varies quite a bit, ranging from cherry and honey deliciousness to Robitussin-like medicine depending on the year. 2019 was square in the middle – decent but not quite living up to previous hype.
Sly Fox Christmas Ale (2019): Ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and clove blend together nicely in another local holiday favorite.
Evil Genius Santa! I Know Him!: The only saison on this list. This one wasn’t what we were looking for, as it leaned towards the herbal, yeasty side.
Scaldis Noel: Another excellent beer – a dark, belgian brew with cloves and accompanying spices.
Narrowing down the choices
After several tasting rounds, two brews emerged as the final contenders. Although classic Christmas beers like scaldis noel, St. Bernardus and Delirium are always great, the darker selections carried extra flavors and aromas that separated them from the true taste of Christmas. Some controversy surrounded Shiner’s holiday cheer, as there wasn’t a consensus on the overall quality or Christmas-ness. I think it hung around much longer than it deserved.
Sly Fox’s Christmas Ale and Southern Tier’s 2xmas made it to the finals, and went head to head for the title.
The Christmas beer conclusion
These 2 brews are quite similar, and feature much of the same ginger/nutmeg/cinnamon combination. In the end, it was the amazing aroma of Southern Tier that propelled it to victory; the fresh smell of spices was so perfectly Christmas that it definitely deserves the title of top Christmas beer for 2019.
— Jeff, brews traveler series and Christmas beer taster extraordinaire
