Beer Compurgation

I’ve had to do some unusual drinking in my endeavour to complete this calendar. But nothing as unusual, or as enjoyable, as Window 21’s beer. When the window was revealed to hold Brouwerij Huyghe's Delirium Christmas 10% (usually known as Delirium Noel but not in this instance) I was rather excited, but as I needed to be in work Friday morning until 12, and then was out straight after work until the early hours, it became clear that this beer would have to be consumed in working hours. Since the final Friday before Christmas is a pointless exercise, where everyone walks around the works stock taking and pretending to tidy, I figured nobody would really mind if I had this during works hours. In a moment of sheer geekery, I was greatly entertained by placing the beer around unusual work stock for photos, hence, the sheer amount of pictures. A clear amber colour, the nose was toffee apples, sweet bread and plenty of winter berries. The taste was terrific, really fusi...

Time for the Saints to arrive. Tis their season after all… First is St Feuillien’s Cuvee deNoel 9% . I’ve had a few from this Belgian Abbey brewer this past year, including their saison for the #supsaison event. I’ve found them traditional, enjoyable, yet unremarkable so far. I’ve already prejudged this Christmas exertion early. With a volcanic head on top of millilitres of flushed liquid, this beer retains those becoming-all-too-familiar scents that we’ve basically described as mincemeat, sherry or dried fruits at least six times this Advent. It’s becoming all too predictable. As is the taste. I suggested St Feuillien are traditionalists and they’ve reinforced that theory with this beer. It is, once more, sweet bordering on saccharine, spiced without breaking out the cinnamon sticks, more sherry than ale and more caramac than caramel. It is, what I have now come to understand as, a traditional Belgian Christmas ale. It is well executed, well balanced, easy drinking despite t...

I’m finally catching up with my posts, just as I come towards the end of this trying calendar. Window 18 is Wagtail Brewery’sJumping Jericho 5.2% . Okay, so the name is a little silly, yet I really enjoy the presentation and design of this beer. It’s probably the first Christmas beer I’ve had that actually includes a religious connotation, in name or label. I can’t say I remember much about Wagtail brewery, though I’ve heard of them , none of their beers have stuck in the memory. With a clear amber colour and plane head , there’s a decent nuttiness to the nose and a honeysuckle thought. Unfortunately, Jumping Jericho falls flat on flavour. It’s got a sweet caramelisation and spruce like beginning. But the residue is metallic, like licking the rusting bottom of an old hop kettle. When the corroded metal subsides, it’s quite a malty mess of ale that does nothing to promote the true story of Christmas. Indeed, if one of the wise men had brought this beer as a gift to Jesus, Mr C...

Behind Window 16 was Gordon Xmas Ale 8.8% , a beer I enjoyed reading the backstory of. It claims to have started the tradition of Belgian Christmas brews when it was brewed for the Brits during World War One and they Belgians developed a taste for it. Whether or not this is true, it’s certainly a cute tale that makes me interested in trying a beer with a   century long history. I remember drinking Gordon’s Highland Scotch for the first time tears ago in Dr Okell’s (now the more famous Mr Foley’s) and stealing the Gordon’s glass to go with it. I think my old housemate then stole it from me… Anyway, enough memories. Let’s drink. A dark bronze with a lovely ruby hue, the familiarities with a Scotch ale are here with the slightly smoky wooden tones but much sweeter base. The taste matches this as a peaty flavour settles on your tongue whilst a smack of vanilla drags it down your throat. There’s that customary sherry stickiness and a decent astringency that pulls the whole mix to...

This weekend was a rather frantic affair that saw me in my house, awake, for a total of around two hours, so I've fallen a little behind again. Despite big social sessions on Friday and Saturday, I did manage to sneak in the Advent Calendar beers in quickly before each event, but simply didn't have time to do the write up. So here they are.    It's an other N øgne seasonal behind Window 14 and another I’ve been looking forward to having had it stashed for many a month now. The God Jul that I had in Window 8 was good, but lacked that Christmassy edge I’d expected from this brewery. It’s lowered my expectations of the Underlig Jul 6.5%  but, as I’m drinking this whilst preparing for a night out, just a terrific beer will do right now. My enjoyment of this was almost immediately soured by its incredible liveliness which saw me lose half of the bottle to my (luckily wooden) bedroom floor. Cheers N øgne . The plus side was this meaning a lovely, susta...

Tonight's blog covers Windows 12 and 13 as I was once again too engaged to have my Advent beers last night. Window 12 has the heading "Christmas Cracker" and involves two beers with that name, of the same strength, from two breweries I've no experience of prior; Wood Brewery and Teignworthy Brewery . I imagined before tonight that they were two who were simply marketing savvy and released a festive ale knowing that people like myself would snap them up, regardless who made them. Nevertheless, I'm ready to be impressed. First is Wood Brewerys' Christmas Cracker 6% . There is a sweet, sticky, syrupy scent to it. The taste represents this, with plenty of maple syrup, bonfire lollies, black jack sweets and liquorice. How many times am I going to use the word pleasant this month? Let me check my thesaurus; it’s agreeable. A little thin, a little loosely carbonated, and probably needs a slight hop kick to control those darker hits. But pleasant, I mean…ag...

Today my workmate picked out Boggart Brewery's Christmas Rum Porter 6.6% . I picked this up at the Micro Bar in Manchester, which is of course run by Boggart brewery . They frequently have their excellent rum porter on and, though I can almost guarantee pre-tasting that this will be the same beer shoved in a bigger bottle and with the word “Christmas” stuck on top, I’m still looking forward to enjoying that beer from bottles for the first time. Big and bold, the nose is actually a tame syrupy effort missing the big alcohol impact of the rum in the original but really straining the sugar cane into the scent. The taste starts off rather weak. There isn’t that immediate impact that the original gives you with a sweet dry fruit flavour that this is missing. OK, I’ll stop comparing it to the original and judge it as a distant entity. It drinks like a typical sweet porter and I’m enjoying it enough to work through the huge 750ml bottle. But the aftertaste is so saccharine. Doubl...