Christmas Ale by Breckenridge Brewery - My Microbrew Review

Here I am on a lazy, cold and sunny late November afternoon. Thanksgiving is just a few days off and Christmas just around the bend. Snow is in the forecast this week. What a perfect day to imbibe in a bottle of Christmas Ale by Breckenridge Brewery.

Breckenridge Brewery is a Colorado brewery located in Denver. They've been around the block in the microbrewing arena, and I've been fortunate to sample a few of their craft beers even though I'm located way out here in Pennsylvania. I'm anxious to try the Breckenridge Christmas Ale however so I'm not going to waste any time in getting started with my microbrew review. Let's go, shall we?

First of all, the beer bottle label is festive for the Christmas season no doubt about that. Makes you want to grab the bottle right out of the sixpack shop cooler.

Pouring the beer into my unchilled glass, it pours a fairly dark ruby red in color with just a tinge of rusty copper on the edges. The head of the beer welled up to about a week one finger head and quickly dissipates to a mild glaze of tan cream on top.

The aroma of the beer is sticky and sweet with a punch of alcohol to boot. I detected a smoky dark coffee scent with some brown sugar presence, maybe a bit of raisins way there in the background. Smells pretty decent but nothing totally intriguing or complex in character.

Breckenridge Christmas Ale sips rather thin in the mouthful for as rich and sticky as it smells and appears. There's alot of alcohol in the mouth and alcoholic burn in the swallow. First impression in drinking this microbrew is that it's more of a brown ale than a winter warmer style. Although it is rather malty, there's a fair deal of hoppy bitterness that lies on the tongue and it finishes somewhat crisply. The mouthful was just a little too thin for my liking however.

Breckenridge Brewery's Christmas Ale is not a bad beer. It's respectable and looks good in a glass. It would look festive having a few bottles lined up in the fridge too given the label design. I've had better winter warmers though and there are many other microbrews and craft beers out there that better represent Christmas beers and Winter Warmers in particular. Given the 7.40% alcohol beer content for Christmas Ale, it does leave a warm feeling in the belly however.

If you've had alot of experience with winter warmer beers, you may not find Breckenridge Christmas Ale all that exciting. If you'd just like to try a craft beer for the Christmas season, this is a fair one to experiment with and share with a few friends around the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table this season. Breckenridge Brewing Christmas Ale gets a 5.75 out of 10.00 micro brew review points.

I've got quite a few more microbrews on my list of Christmas beer to sample before the holidays and I'll be posting again shortly, so stop back soon and thanks for reading this microbrew beer review!

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Saranac Winter Wassail Microbrew Review

Although it's now March, I was able to pick up a straggler winter beer sampler 24 pack of Saranac's 12 Beers of Winter. The 12 beers is actually only 6 different styles of beers in 2 separate 12 packs (a little misleading as I'd initially thought I'd have the opportunity to sample 2 of 12 different brews).

Anyway, the price was right and I'd had several pretty good past experiences with craft beers from Saranac (Saranac's actually one of the brand names of beers brewed by Matt Brewing Company out of Utica, New York). This case of craft beer looked festive enough from the design on the packaging and since it is still officially winter, I thought I'd give it a try.

Saranac Wassail Ale, as served from the traditionally classic brown glass bottle (with fairly festively cool label)poured a crisp cool looking copper pink into an unchilled 16 ounce standard pint glass.

The perky foamy head rose in agitated fashion to a billowy off-white head of a good three quarters inch, but simmered down in less than 2 minutes to virtually nothing. Nothing too notable here yet.

Aroma is festive. Malty and sweet with rough edges of fruit and spice. A very faint raison/clove scent eminates. Not alot like many Christmas ales I've sampled these past few months. For a spiced ale, I sense more in the way of fruit presense.

This winter ale microbrew provided a fairly crisp flavor. Sweet and malty at first but more in the way of fruit presense as I progressed mid-glass via the warming stages. The sweetness and malt tended to transgress to a fruity, plum-like flavor. Not so much on the spice side once hitting mid-glass with warming. I really don't know the alcohol by volume rating of this beer but assume it's under 6%. If it's more than that, it's extremely well hidden.

Saranac's Winter Wassail is an enjoyable microbrew. It's refreshing, a little unique, and fruity in an unobtrusive manner. I imagined more prominence in the way of spices judging by the label description, but was more impressioned with the fruit side of this ale. Plum sticks foremost in my mind, at least with this particular 12 ounce bottle.

If you haven't tried any beers from Saranac yet, this microbrewery's offerings are definitely worth a shot. I've sampled several from the Matt Brewing Co and have rarely had any extreme disappointments. I would describe many of Saranac's beers as great "crossover" beers to the craft beer world. Saranac Winter Wassail out of their Winter Beers mixed sampler pack is worthy of inclusion in the mix of 24. It's more of a milder Christmas beer I'd say with better enjoyment promised upon consumption around festively warmer holiday meals rather than while riding out a late winter blizzard in the freezing cold of an unsurrendering winter. This is global warming? How can we get some more? I think we need it.

St. Nikolaus Bock Bier - Santa's Little Helper?

I just love seasonal microbrews and craft beers! It doesn't matter the season or the reason. I love sampling what different microbreweries come up with and their interpretations of different styles of microbrews rotating throughout the year. Christmas-time is just another of my most anticipated times of the year (both for the presents, and for the craft beer...of which would make a great gift for the holidays if my wife is reading this "hint, hint")

Okay, enough rattling on. What I've tested out today is a perfect offering from a local brewery just down the road in East Pittsburgh, PA. I'm talking about the Pennsylvania Brewing Company and their St. Nikolaus Bock Bier in particular.

Now being honest and up front with you, I've tried several of Penn Brewing's other "craft beers" with not always the best impressions being left on my palate. Nothing against the brewery, just not my cup of tea I guess. But St. Nickolaus Bock Bier is a far cry from any other microbrew I've laid my lips to from this brewery.

First off, the bottle is a completely glorious example of what a Christmas beer label should look like with Jolly Old St. Nick right there smiling on the bottle, and I'm not talking about some chintzy, commercial rendition, but what seems like a Victorian era depiction of the "real Santa Claus". It really put me in the mood that I was about to embark on a true Christmas treat.

The beer was poured into my trusty unchilled pint glass with a dark, dark ruby appearance but only when held up to very bright light. The head only displayed only about 1/2 finger of a very light tan colored froth that didn't spend a whole lot of time lingering. It was completely gone in about 5 minutes. Gone! Aroma gave me a combined impression of sweetness, malt, chocolate and even just a hint of caramel (great description, I know!).

Now that it'd had a chance the breath, the first sip of this microbrew was impressive. I think just the drastic improved difference in the saturation of pleasing flavor, compared to the other Pennsylvania Brewing Company beers, really hit me with a better than average standing than normally would be rated. I enjoyed the flavor that seemed to match what was hinted in the aroma to a "T". There was a strong roasted maltiness, there was chocolate bouncing around, a little bit of caramel and twinges of something reminiscent of dates. Unlike some other "Christmas Beers" I've tried, this style being a bock didn't bring in the spices that alot of holiday craft beers or "winter warmers" seem to implement fairly consistently. There was a bit, just a bit of alcohol tinge to the beverage as it warmed toward the end of the glass, but not enough to be a turn off. The beer itself is listed at about 7.5 abv so it is around that range you'd expect to taste it a little.

In all, a well-crafted microbrew from Pennsylvania Brewing Company. I wouldn't classify it as the alltime perfect Christmas beer, but it really impressed me well beyond what I had maybe initially expected (judging from past experiences and not being a huge Dunkel Bock style fan). Packaging, labeling, appearance, aroma, taste and level of drinkability were all well above average marks and truly put me in the mood for the holidays (and another St. Nikolaus Bock!) I may just have to purchase a case of this for the upcoming festivities, if I can still even find it around anywhere here. I give it a thumbs up and recommend it for the holiday/winter season.

I'll vouch for a 7.50 rating out of 10.00 for Penn Brewery's St. Nikolaus Bock Bier. Ho, ho, ho!!

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You can check out more reviews of new microbrews and fun microbrew and craft beer related info at Microbrew Review or My Squidoo Lens. Check out Summer Microbrew too!

All I want for Christmas is Great Lakes Christmas Ale!

Alright, it is just a hair too early for Christmas beers (just one week until Thanksgiving). But, so what!

I was down at the local beer "distributor" this past Sunday (yes, they sell beer at distibutors in Pennsylvania on Sundays now) and had to pick up a case from their "New Arrivals" Christmas Beers skid (yes, literally a skid).

There were several selections of varying interest, but the one that caught my eye most was one from Great Lakes Brewing, their annual "Christmas Ale" offering. I'd seen this around the area a few times last season and passed on the chance to sample it. By the time I'd changed my mind, it was gone! I didn't want to miss out this time around because I'd heard some really good things about this microbrew and, plus, the label on this one is pretty cool (model train car full of shiny red christmas ornaments).

Other than the fact that this case cost me a fairly steep $39.99, and the fact I pumped a little financial support to our lifetime rival Cleveland economy, I am ultimately glad I made the investment.

I'm currently sipping on my second 12 ounce serving and wondering how I'm going to stretch the remaining 22 bottles out over the next month and a half or come up with the moolah pretty quick to go back and purchase the one remaining case on the "skid".

Anyway, this one is going to be a favorite for me for many holiday seasons to come (I hope!). This microbrew pours a clear orangish amber with just a slight twinge of dark copper. The head was surprisingly nice and billowy in my 16 ounce pint glass coming in at just under two fingers which lasted well over 5 minutes even after the first few quaffs. Very poofy and cumulus cloud-like.

The aroma is very sweet, almost sugary but in a good way. Something in this brew calls to mind mental pictures of sugar cookies to me. The overall flavor includes very little in the way of hoppy bitterness, but then again this is a "Christmas Ale". If you are very much into microbrews but really like the hoppy IPA styles, this one just may not be your cup of tea so maybe just buy a single bottle if you can to try it if you want before plunking down a couple 20's on a case. In addition to the sugar cookie impression this microbrew gives off in flavor, I noted some mild hints of honey and even fainter, but still present, cherry notes.

The bottom line for me on the Great Lakes "Christmas Ale" is that I would highly recommend it to anyone who is open to trying something seasonal. This is not a beer I would sit and drink many of at one time, nor do I see myself on the back porch on a 90 degree summer evening downing a Christmas Ale after mowing the lawn. But I do see this beer as being perfect for me for the upcoming holiday season, to enjoy responsibly while celebrating with family and friends at a Christmas party, family gathering, or just in front of the fireplace on a cold night with the wife. There's a window of time to enjoy microbrews like this and for Great Lakes "Christmas Ale" the short time is now. If you have the chance where you live, pick up a few to enjoy during the upcoming holidays.

I'll rate this an 8.25 out of 10.00 for the style (seasonal/spiced/winter warmer)

You can check out more reviews of new microbrews and fun microbrew and craft beer related info at Microbrew Review or My Squidoo Lens. Check out Summer Microbrew too!