’Tis the season of wintry things: a sun that hardly rises, gloom and gray all day, farmers markets flooded with kale and the anguish of gift shopping.
But with December, at least, we also enter the months of the big-boned malt bombs, often billed by brewers as their “winter” or “Christmas” beers. Such brews currently on shelves at local supermarkets and better beer stores include Ginger’s Winter Warmer from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, Sierra Nevada’s annual Celebration Ale and Anchor Brewing’s yearly Christmas Ale. San Francisco’s 21st Amendment has released Fireside Chat, a strong brown beer named after Franklin Roosevelt’s weekly radio talks with a nation that was then burning its furniture to keep warm. And from breweries further afield, beers like Deschutes’ Jubelale and Avery’s Old Jubilation Ale have arrived with the rains and the nasty north swell.
So what makes a beer a “Christmas beer”? According to the Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines, a lengthy online document of history, sensory descriptors and ingredients, the brew, whether ale or lager, should be “reminiscent of Christmas cookies, gingerbread, English-type Christmas pudding, spruce trees, or mulling spices. Any combination of aromatics that suggests the holiday season is welcome.” To achieve such ends, brewers often add spices to their Christmas beers. Ginger’s Winter Warmer, for example, was brewed with two pounds of dried ginger, two pounds of fresh ginger and crushed whole lemons. Fireside Chat contains the warm and sugary essence of “spices.” Anchor’s Christmas Ale also carries an undisclosed mix of ingredients.
Uncommon Brewers makes nothing but strong ales spiced for effect; there’s the curry-flavored Belgian-style, the redwood branch barleywine, the poppy seed golden and the candy cap mushroom. But our holiday picks from this homegrown Santa Cruz brewery would have to be the oil-black Baltic Porter with licorice, available on draft at The Parish Publick House, and the Bacon Brown, a smoky, maple-hued ale brewed with cuts of smoked swine and pouring now at The Avenue and Bluewater Steakhouse.
At Seabright Brewery, spiced winter beers have historically been financial duds, according to brewer Jason Chavez. So what can we expect instead? A 10 percent alcohol barleywine on draft beginning Dec. 23.
Another Bay Area wintertime beer worth tasting is Shmaltz Brewing Company’s Jewbelation Fourteen. Of 14 malts, 14 hops and a 14-percent alcohol reading, this beauty is a layered, chewy ale of fudge, toffee, butterscotch and dried fruit flavors—but if it reminds you of a fat man in a sleigh and gifts heaped under a wilting fir tree, the brewers missed their mark. Because Shmaltz, based in San Francisco, is the nation’s most irreverently Jewish brewery: don’t expect a pig-flavored beer from these guys. Well-known for its “He’brew: The Chosen Beer” label, Shmaltz released Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah last December when the brewery turned 13. Fourteen is the latest in the Jewbelation birthday series. Available in 22-ounce bottles, it will also be paired to kosher cuisine (specifically a fifth course of chocolate beignets) on Dec. 6 at 515 Kitchen & Cocktails. Call the restaurant (831.239.8615) to reserve.
Finally, we leave you with word of the fanciest winter release in town: Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Company’s barleywine, available in champagne bottles only at the Westside brewery—and it’s worth the trip. It was aged in French chardonnay barrels for eight months, a technique intended to impart a buttery smooth texture and flavors of vanilla, oak and faint coconut. Visions of Santa Claus and sugar plums, however, were never intended as part of the package—but if they start dancing in your head, well, it is Christmas. Have another drink.
