We almost touched Christmas with our fingers. Surely you have already put the tree in your house and have gone out to see the lights of your city. And it is that, many times, it is the traditions that fill certain dates with meaning. In fact, today I'm here to talk to you, friend beersapiens, about a tradition that you may not know: seasonal beer. That is, depending on the calendar, certain styles of beers are manufactured. We love the idea that in the beer world there are also moments that are celebrated with beers ad hoc,, for example, the Pumpkin Ale that is made in the fall, with pumpkin pulp (you can read more here… ). And they are not the only ones, we can also find Burton Ale in the United States, the history of Wassail in England, Juleøl in Norway, Weihnachtsbier in Germany, or Bière de Noël or Belgian Christmas beers.
The story goes that the Belgians were the first to produce special beer at Christmas time. These were darker in color and had a higher alcohol content than “normal” production beers and were also spiced with ingredients typical of these months.
In general, and according to the BJCP 2015 guidelines, the general impression of the style “Winter Seasonal Beer”, speaks of a beer with a high alcohol level, dark and spicy, with a full body and an aftertaste. with slight heating that suggests to be a good accompaniment for the cold winter season. The guides also comment that they are high alcohol Ales or Lagers, but there must be the context of a base style (even if it is not one of the BJCP). Additionally, this category requires the use of spices or adjuncts that have strong flavors reminiscent of Christmas. However, in other cultures (such as the British) spices are not required for Christmas beers.
Traditionally, these winter beers were those that were brewed in October-November to be consumed in December-January, when it was colder, so they were beers with more alcohol, with more body, more powerful, and sweeter. But from the year 1900, with the first uses of advertising applied to sales, they began to be marketed as Christmas beers. You can imagine: names with references to “Noel”, green, red and gold colors and plump Santas driving their sleigh with a beer in hand… (and maybe Rudolph drank them too, hence his little red nose…)
But what is clear is that they added more anise, more spices and more sugar to these winter beers, so they were even sweeter than beers from other seasons. In general, it could be said that in this style, "malt is predominant, it has triple or quadruple that of normal beers, and the roasting of the barley gives it toasted, roasted, coffee, toffee touches, even the color caramel and, in most of them, that anise flavor, plus some spices such as cloves, liquorice, some even pepper... They hardly contain hops, more than anything as a preservative," summarizes Enrique Vicente, distributor of Cervezas Santa Malta.
I'm telling you all this because beer is not only associated with heat. It can be a wonderful table companion for Christmas days. What we recommend for these dates is to choose beers with more body and alcohol content, to combat the cold and also because they are beers that should be tasted more calmly, which makes them ideal for these dates. And to make it easy we have created some Beer Christmas Packs (with 10, 12 and 30 beers) so that you have a choice. Although we are sure that the problem is going to be which one to choose! Our advice: everyone.Because they are also a very original gift for these dates (enough of giving away ugly socks or marzipan that nobody is going to eat…) These are some examples of styles that you can find in these packs: But this is just a preview of the Beer Christmas that we have prepared for you. A bit like when you opened Santa's gift, but you knew that the Three Wise Men would bring even more things. Have you been good this year? Ho ho ho !