Christmas Beer Guidelines
Not that some rule-makers haven’t tried.
The Beer Judge Certification Program style guidelines (Category 21 B) say its aroma should be “reminiscent of Christmas cookies,” its appearance should be amber to dark brown, and it must taste “rich and malty.”
Interestingly, the guidelines demand: “spices are required.”
Now, a stickler would point out here that some of the brands the BJCP cites as leading commercial examples do not, in fact, contain spices. For example, the hugely popular Troegs Mad Elf from Pennsylvania might taste spicy, but that sensation is a product of its phenol-producing Belgian yeast strain, not cinnamon or nutmeg.
Even the BJCP acknowledges the shortcomings of its guidelines.
It concedes many brands that call themselves Christmas beer don’t meet its narrowly defined criteria. Even classic styles, like English winter warmers and German Weihnacht lagers—styles that are far more authentic than newfangled American Christmas beers made with, let’s say, cranberries—are not welcome. Indeed, under these rules, Samichlaus Bier—the highly regarded Austrian triple bock that is brewed only on St. Nicholas Day, a beer that the late British beer critic Michael Jackson himself saved from extinction—does not qualify as a Christmas beer, even if it’s named after Santa Claus himself.
It seems obvious that trying to define Christmas beer by color or alcohol content or flavor or ingredients is a fruitless pursuit. In this secular age, you can’t even define Christmas beer by its name; these days, we often euphemistically refer to them as “holiday” ales, or give them wintry names like “Hibernation Ale” or Snow-Something-or-Other.
So, how can we define Christmas beer?
That’s actually quite simple: It’s a beer that was brewed as a gift.
It can be any style, any flavor, any color, any name—it doesn’t matter as long as it was given and received as a gift. Why? Because gift-giving is the most essential part of the holiday.
Now, we can argue over the origins of the tradition of giving gifts at Christmastime. Some say it stems from the gold, myrrh and frankincense brought to Jesus by the magi; others note that gift-giving was part of pre-Christian solstice celebrations, including Rome’s Saturnalia. But worrying about the origins of this tradition is as unrewarding as debating the ever-changing spice content of Anchor Our Special Ale.
