When You Wish…
Beer can come in all shapes and sizes.
Hobgoblin’s Dark English Ale is included in a glass & bottle gift set in a collectable tin.
Rogue Ales emblazons their bottles of Santa’s Private Reserve —a double-hopped red ale—with a fist-pumping jolly old St. Nick.
Mother Earth Brewing Co.’s Silent Night – a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout – comes caged- and-cork in a 750ml bottle.
Anchor Brewing’s Christmas Ale magnum would make an impressive present to any beer lover.
…Upon a Star
Highland Brewing’s Cold Mountain Winter Ale is a spiced ale which comes fashioned with a resealable flip top.
St. Bernadardus’s Christmas Ale (a Belgian strong dark ale) and The Lost Abbey’s Gift of the Magi (a golden ale) both offer their seasonal beers in caged-and-corked 750ml bottles.
Samuel Smith offers a gift box that comes with their Winter Warmer Ale, a pint glass and a pair of coasters.
May Your Holidays…
There’s a myriad of ways to depict the holiday time of year. And breweries rise to the challenge.
Bell’s Brewery’s Christmas Ale—A Scottish ale—goes for a design of understated simplicity, as does Deschutes Brewery’s Jubelale.
Smuttynose Brewing Co.’s Winter Ale, New Holland Brewing Co.’s Cabin Fever brown ale and Brouwerij Huyghe’s Delirium Noel all maximize the use of snow, indicative of the climates in which their breweries are located.
…Be Merry and Bright
Winter means many things to many people.
In the case of Northern California’s Anderson Valley Brewing Co. and their Seasonal Ale, that means celebration of the winter solstice.
For Maryland’s Heavy Seas Winter Storm and Flying Dog’s Winter Ale it is all about the storm and its resulting chilly playground (much like the kleptomanic snowmen of Weyerbacher Brewing Co.’s Winter Ale).
Sierra Nevada echoes the age-old sentiment that nothing seems more soothing in a snow-covered cabin than some Celebration Ale.
