The Twelve Beers of Christmas 2017

It is a festive time of year. What better way to celebrate than with the annual Twelve Beers of Christmas? This year marks the tenth anniversary of this revelry. That is a great deal of stellar beers and plenty of celebrating. To be included in the Twelve Beers of Christmas, it must be a beer not enjoyed before, either gifted, muled, hauled from travels, rare and coveted. The drinking of the dozen begins on Christmas day and follows the Twelve Days of Christmas. Follow along with the celebration on Instagram, Untappd, and Twitter.

1. Vintage Brewing Bock's O-Chocolates

Style: Chocolate Doppelbock

Life is like a box of chocolates. Christmas Day and chocolate goes together like peanut butter and jelly. I might drink this one pretty early, like when the kids are opening presents early. Chocolate beer for dessert (breakfast) indeed. Thank you PfoxyJohn for this bottle of candy.

"This rich and decadent true lager is brewed with generous additions of chocolate malt and organic cocoa powder then aged on fresh-toasted cacao nibs and Mexican vanilla beans. Bock's O-Chocolates has a rich malty sweetness and a serious chocolate flavor with a thick chewy body."

2. Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast 

Style: Oatmeal Stout (with coffee addition)

A breakfast beer? Yes. Oatmeal, coffee, dark chocolates all sound appealing for Boxing Day breakfast. Thank you Candace for this long time wish list beer. 

"An oatmeal stout with 25.0% oat-based ingredients and a nice touch of gourmet coffee. A beer that goes extremely well with breakfast! Good hints of coffee and smoke as well as dark chocolate and roasted malts. Ask any beer geek . . .  a hearty, complex stout is the tastiest way to begin the day. This unique mix of an oat and coffee stout creates an intense, full-bodied beer that is surprisingly balanced and full of new taste adventures with every sip."

3. Alewerks Lover's Greed

Style: American Wild Ale

Sour and wild ales, especially barrel aged variants, are at the top of the beer pyramid. Complex flavors, usually tart and exhibiting characteristics from the barrels, are extremely appealing to my taste buds. This one was acquired in Virginia during work travels.

"You hold a piece of the second iteration of Lover's Greed American Wild Ale. This batch waited 36 months in French Oak red Wine barrels before it was deemed worthy of release. This beer has moved beyond an exercise in the forgotten virtue of patience; it is a demonstration of an inclination for torment due to fascination with an elegant ale." 

4. Sierra Nevada Trip In The Woods Barrel-Aged Cocoa Coconut Narwhal

Style: Barrel-aged Imperial Stout (with toasted coconut and cocoa nibs)

I love coconut, and chocolate, and barrel-aged beers. This monster has it all. Seems like a very good nightcap on a cold December evening. Might better share this one with the better half...

"This very special version of our Narwhal Imperial Stout was brewed with toasted coconut and then left to mature in Kentucky Bourbon barrels for nearly a year. To the barrels, we added additional coconut and cocoa nibs to create a uniquely rich and decadent stout."

5. De Proef/New Glarus Abtsolution Dark Belgian Ale

Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale

Belgium's De Proef Brouwerij and Wisconsin's New Glarus Brewing are two of the world's top breweries. This collaboration marries these stalwarts yielding a rich, dark Belgian classic with a Wisconsin twist. Abtsolution should pair nicely with a rich holiday meal. Thank you for another gem Mr. Pfister. 

"We have created a beer based on the classic Belgian Abt style, with unique Wisconsin contributions including Santiam and Chinook hops. To further highlight the Dairy State we've added lactose for extra mouthfeel and richness. The result is a dark ale with fruity esters, a velvety smooth palate and balancing wood notes from our use of French and American oak along with spicy hop notes. This ale is designed to drink now, but we believe will evolve beautifully over the next 1-2 years. Enjoy Abtsolution with roasted meats, rich cheese and of course, friends. Cheers!"

6. Southern Tier Thick Mint

Style: Imperial Stout (with chocolate and mint)

Everyone loves Girl Scout cookies, especially Thin Mints. This beer is a take on those delicious cookies in stout form - an Imperial Stout brewed with chocolate and mint. Another dessert ale for my Twelve Beers of Christmas; life is good.

"Inspired by the legendary cookie, Thick Mint joins our world-class rated Blackwater Series of dessert beers alongside Crème Brûlée & Choklat in 2017. This imperial stout is a mouthful of perfectly balanced mint & chocolate. Roasty malts coalesce with notes of Belgian dark chocolate, sweet mint & just a touch of sweet caramel. So decadently delicious, you’ll wish you’d bought another box… er, bottle."

7. Sierra Nevada Alpha Hop Society Barrel-Aged Cherry Vanilla Stout

Style: Barrel-aged Imperial Stout (with cherries and vanilla)

Another Imperial Stout, this one bourbon barrel aged with cherries and vanilla added. Just call me a fat elf. Yes this list is heavy on Imperial Stouts, dessert beers, because it is my list and these are the beers I enjoy during the holidays. Thank you Matt R for letting this go out of your cellar. 

"An Imperial Stout aged in Bourbon barrels with cherries and vanilla added."

8. Yazoo Embrace the Funk Table Red

Style: Flanders Red Ale

Happy New Year to me! Brandon Jones, Wranger of Funk at Yazoo Brewing Company in Nashville, pilots the Embrace The Funk program, blending barrel aged beers with a wild and funky side. He is a genius. He is also humble and nice. Kudos to ETF and The Wrangler of Funk. I always thoroughly enjoy his concoctions. The Table Red is an uber rare small batch release that I picked up on one of my visits to The Music City in 2017.

"A light bodied Table Red ale aged for 16 months in French Oak barrels with our house souring and brettanomyces cultures. This delicious ale pairs well with plein air dinners and conversations between good friends."

9. Yazoo Embrace The Funk Funk Fest '17

Style: Flanders Oud Bruin (with boysenberries, raspberries and cherries)

Another blended ale from Brandon and Embrace the Funk, this one has a lot to offer. Richness, complexity, tartness, fruits while employing Brettanomyces and souring bacterias should make this one an enjoyable addition to the Twelve Beers of Christmas. 

"A blend of Brown and Dark sour ales aged in Rye Bourbon, Sherry and Port barrels with Boysenberries, Raspberries and Cherries."

10. Thomas Creek Driftwood Series Boys-en The Hood

Style: American Sour Ale (with boysenberries) 

"Petite Sour Ale with Boysenberry" - another sour/wild ale. Tingle my taste buds, please my palate; the love for these tart temptations continues. Picked this one up at the brewery in Greenville, SC.

"Mixed Culture Sour ale fermented in rum barrels with boysenberry added to the barrels for secondary fermentation."

11. Hardywood Cuvée Peach

Style: Belgian-style Tripel (with peaches)

Peaches are my favorite fruit. (Cherries are my second favorite.) Thus the Twelve Beers of Christmas include beers with these fruit additions. Hardywood is a highly regarded brewery in Richmond, VA. A white wine barrel aged peach Tripel ale should be amazingly delicious. This peachy Tripel comes to me via recent Appalachian Trail Hiker (all of it!), Jim aka Gravity, who knows how much I love peaches, and beer. 

"Hardywood Cuvée Peach is artfully blended by our barrel master from small batches of Peach Tripel aged in white wine barrels, at varying levels of maturation , from three months to more than a year. The resulting beer is beautifully complex with yeast-derived stone fruit esters that harmonize with juicy peach undertones. This sparkling refresher offers a pleasantly dry finish with the slightest hint of vanilla from the toasted French Oak barrels."

12. Idyll Hounds Capt'n Ferdinand 

Style: Barrel-aged Imperial Stout (with vanilla)

Another Imperial stout, this one aged in sherry barrels with a vanilla bean addition. This should be quite the sipper, full of flavor, to be paired with rich desserts. Thank you Jason for this big boy. 

The Twelve Beers of Christmas for 2017. Cheers to good friends, great beers, and enjoying family during the holiday season. I hope you enjoy your own Twelve Beers of Christmas and share with your family and friends. 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!

Twelve Beers of Christmas Past:

Twelve Beers of Christmas 2008
1. Anchor Our Special Ale (2008)
2. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
3. Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel
4. Great Lakes Christmas Ale
5. Bison Winter Warmer
6. Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock
7. Delirium Tremens
8. New Glarus Apple Ale
9. Corsendonk Pater (Abbey Brown Ale)
10. Corsendonk Agnus (Abbey Pale Ale)
11. Thirsty Dog Siberian Night Imperial Stout
12. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale (2008)

Twelve Beers of Christmas 2009
1. Thirsty Dog 12 Dogs Christmas Ale
2. Goose Island Christmas Ale
3. Tommyknocker St. Nicks Cocoa Porter
4. Avery Old Jubilation Ale
5. Rinkuškiai Missing Elf
6. Fort Collins Double Chocolate Stout
7. Ken Schmidt / Maui / Stone Kona Coffee Macadamia Coconut Porter
8. Rochefort Trappistes 6
9. Rogue Santas Private Reserve Ale
10. Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza
11. Cantillon Iris
12. Lurgashall Christmas Mead

Twelve Beers of Christmas 2010
1. Spaten Optimator
2. Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine
3. Ass Kisser Double IPA
4. Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA
5. Terrapin Wake-n-Bake Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout
6. Depot Street The Limited Maple Pecan Porter
7. AleSmith YuleSmith – Summer
8. a. Oskar Blues Gordon / b. Oskar Blues Gubna
9. Maredsous 10
10. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock
11. Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Fritz & Ken Ale
12. Victory Old Horizontal

Twelve Beers of Christmas 2011
1. AleSmith Yulesmith – Winter
2. Brew Kettle White Rajah
3. Brooklyn Black Ops
4. Capital Eternal Flame
5. Dogfish Head Miles Davis' Bitches Brew
6. Founders Backwoods Bastard
7. Hoppin' Frog DORIS The Destroyer Double Imperial Stout
8. Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball Ale
9. Odell Mountain Standard '09
10. Olde Hickory Bourbon Barrel Aged Bardstown Ale
11. Ommegang Brasserie D'Achouffe Gnomegang
12. Three Floyds Dark Lord Imperial Stout

Twelve Beers of Christmas 2012
1. De Ranke Pere Noel
2. St. Bernardus Christmas Ale
3. Hopworks Organic Abominable Winter Ale
4. Lompoc C-Son's Greetings
5. Midnight Sun CoHoHo Imperial IPA
6. N'Ice Chouffe
7. Ninkasi Sleigh'r Dark Double Alt
8. Oakshire Ill-Tempered Gnome
9. Pelican Bad Santa
10. Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper
11. Samuel Adams Merry Mischief Gingerbread Stout
12. The Bruery 5 Golden Rings

Twelve Beers of Christmas 2013

Twelve Beers of Christmas 2014

Twelve Beers of Christmas 2015

Twelve Beers of Christmas 2016

A Dozen Delectable Valentine's Beers

Ever the romantic and passionate craft beer lover, Valentine's Day is the perfect platform to theme seductive elixirs with affectionate intentions. Paired with a romantic dinner, or as an apéritif or digestif, or just with a sexy dessert, these dozen delicious offerings can entice your partner with luscious and tempting bouquets and flavors. 

 
St. Bernardus Abt 12

How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said.

- Victor Hugo

Dark with a full, ivory-colored head. Aromas of bananas, dates, raisins, sweet malts, brown sugar and alcohol. Taste is extremely smooth with a sweet base of ripe fruits - bananas, dates - and candi sugar with malts and a complex fruitiness and finish. Very smooth and very good. Regarded as one of the best beers in the world. Even the monk is smiling.

Dieu du Ciel Aphrodisiaque
 
J'aurais toujours faim de toi.
- The Police

This black ale imparts aromas and flavors of vanilla, dark chocolate, bourbon and roasted malt. The vanilla and cocoa marry nicely, without out-competing each other, to produce a surprisingly well balanced beer. Aphrodisiac? Absolutely. 

The Bruery Tart of Darkness

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
- Mae West

Tart of Darkness is a stout aged in used oak barrels with a blend of souring bacterias and wild yeasts. The result is a perfectly tart yet awesomely dark and roasty sour stout. This unique stout has notes of tart plums, roasted coffee, vanilla and oak and pairs perfectly with dark chocolates. Pucker up, baby.

Yazoo SUE

My name is SUE, how do you do?
- Johnny Cash

The South is famous for smoking everything – so why not beer?
Sweet and slightly smoked malts, smoked cherry wood, a bit of burnt brown sugar, toffee, bittersweet chocolate and java in the aromas. The flavors offer a nice initial sweet-slightly smokiness, hint of smoked cherry, then a bit of cocoa and java followed by a decent hops presence. Get your smoking hot date a brew to match.

Burnside Sweet Heat

The raging fire which urged us on was scorching us; it would have burned us had we tried to restrain it. 
- Giacomo Casanova

Light golden amber color, with apricots and Scotch Bonnet pepper aromas, nice sweet fruits, more peppers, little noticeable hops. Palate of light heat and apricots and baked peaches, then the heat is more intense as it lingers creating a nice slow Jamaican Jerk burn. Fantastic beer if you like a bit of heat. Would pair nicely with Jamaican or Thai foods. Mmm spicy...

AleSmith My Bloody Valentine

The sweetest joy, the wildest woe is love.
- Pearl Bailey

Released shortly before Valentine’s Day, My Bloody Valentine is a caramel-sweet malt red ale which is delicately balanced with floral American hop varieties for a truly unique drinking sensation. A deep mahogany red color and a big, aromatic hop profile are the signatures of this seasonal ale. Big and Red and dangerous.

Bell's Hopslam

She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild, and manna dew; 
And sure in language strange she said, 'I love thee true.' 
- John Keats


Hopslam pours a beautiful light honey amber color with a thin white head and big drapes of lacing. HUGE hops aromas of peaches, mangoes, grapefruits, then a though of pine, followed by more candied fruit and malts, sweet floral - honeysuckle and slight honey. Taste is intensely hoppy albeit sweet with the ultra aforementioned mango/grapefruit/peach flavor rolling across your taste buds with a wonderful zing and zestfulness, almost tingling and jolting the senses. Bitter then offset by the fruity and sweet maltiness.  Honey indeed! - only to tame the massive hops presence.

Southern Tier Choklat

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt. 
- Charles M. Schulz


Choklat pours heavy black with an extremely tight near perfect tan head, massive lacing left on your glass after every sip. Chocolate aroma. Chocolate aroma. Chocolate aroma. Taste and aroma are of Dark chocolates, Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, Belgian chocolate, Godiva chocolate liqueur, milk chocolate, cocoa nibs, semi-sweet chocolate, Lindt chocolate, Mayan chocolate. Maybe a little java, but definitely chocolate... and roasted malts. Then there is a bit of chocolate in the end. Choklat. Yes it is. Willie Wonka had something to do with this beer I'm certain. I never thought I'd hear anyone say, "That's almost too much chocolate!" 

But it's not. 

Dogfish Head Theobroma

Love is like swallowing hot dark chocolate. At first it takes you by surprise, but keeps you warm for a long time.
- Anonymous

This beer is based on chemical analysis of pottery fragments found in Honduras which revealed the earliest known alcoholic chocolate drink used by early civilization to toast special occasions. the discovery of this beverage pushed back the earliest use of cocoa for human consumption more than 500 years to 1200 BC. As per the analysis, Dogfish head’s Theobroma (food of the gods) is brewed with Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs, honey, chilies, and annatto. 

There it is again - honey. This time with chocolate. It's gotta work.

Theobroma is a celebration of chocolate, the food of the gods.
This Ancient Ale is based on chemical analysis of pottery fragments found in Honduras that revealed the earliest known alcoholic chocolate drink used by early civilizations to toast special occasions.
The discovery of this beverage pushed back the earliest use of cocoa for human consumption more than 500 years to 1,200 B.C. As per the analysis, Dogfish Head's Theobroma (translated into "food of the gods") is brewed with Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs (from our friends at Askinosie Chocolate), honey, chilies and annatto (fragrant tree seeds).
It's light in color, not what you expect from your typical chocolate beer (not that you'd be surprised that we'd do something unexpected with this beer!).
- See more at: http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occassional-rarities/theobroma.htm#sthash.kUxmWvja.dpuf

New Glarus Raspberry Tart

My voice is raspy like raspberries. Can you taste what I’m saying?
- Jarod Kintz

Treat yourself to a rare delight. The voluminous raspberry bouquet will greet you long before your lips touch your glass. Serve this Wisconsin framboise very cold in a champagne flute. Then hold your glass to a light and enjoy the jewel-like sparkle of a very special ale.  

Dessert before or after? 

Foothills Sexual Chocolate

After eating chocolate you feel godlike, as though you can conquer enemies, lead armies, entice lovers.
- Emily Luchetti

A cocoa infused Imperial Stout. Opaque black in color with a dark brown head. Big chocolate aroma with notes of espresso, blackstrap molasses, dark sweet toffee and dark fruit. Smooth dark chocolate backbone with complex notes of coffee, dark toffee and dark fruit. The name says it all.

SweetWater Happy Ending

If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.
- Orson Welles

SweetWater's Happy Ending is an award-winning Imperial Stout that offers a robust blanket of roast, chocolate, coffee, plums and raisins that will sink into your taste buds. An explosive burst of citrus hops complement the warm rich flavors and will send you over the top, because we all want a Happy Ending, don't we?

I hope these help the cause. Did I miss any? What are your favorites? 

Happy Valentine's Day y'all.