Final Christmas Beer

The Holiday collaboration beer with Stone, Nogne-O and Jolly Pumpkin was one of the first Christmas beers I bought last fall. I wrote about it here. I bought two, and had the first after a five hour pre-Thanksgiving car ride, and put the second in the back of the fridge. I kept waiting for the right time to open this special beer, since I drank the first without much thought after the stressful car trip. I had the second last night, and it was the last of my 2008 Christmas beers. (Only three more months until I start seeing Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale.)

Part of the reason I drank the Holiday Collaboration was Kevin Scheitrum's article in this month's BeerAdvocate Magazine on its brewing. It was quite a task and involved multiple spices, herbs and even chestnuts. I was also making room for Stone's next collaboration beer, a black pilsner that Stone brewed with Scotland's BrewDog and Cambridge Brewing.

It's strange drinking such a spicy winter beer on the first day of summer. But this beer held up well. It had no foam, but plenty of carbonation. It was sweeter than I remember. The beer was brewed with a number of herbs and spices, but what I could taste was the sage and juniper, (or maybe the juniper and sage). I was surprised it was such a dry beer. This is a good after dinner beer, a natural with dessert. I hope this beer is made again. To me, it embodies all that is special about a Christmas beer. It is dark, interesting yet drinkable, full of spices, and it warms you up with its 9% abv.