11 Christmas Ales Ranked

You may recall that I recently shared that Paste Magazine had compiled a list of the Top 10 Winter Ales Ranked. Although to date, my experiences with Winter Ales had been less than favorable.

Well, shortly thereafter, Paste Magazine shared their picks for the top 11 Christmas Ales ranked. Here are Paste Magazine's picks for the top 11 Christmas Ales:

1. St. Bernardus Christmas
2. Corsendonk Christmas
3. Scaldis Noël
4. Mikkeller Santa’s Little Helper
5. Port Santa’s Little Helper (Bourbon-Barrel Aged)
6. Anchor Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
7. Bell’s Christmas Ale
8. Sweetwater Festive
9. Sierra Nevada Celebration
10. Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale Brown Shugga Substitute
11. Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve

Now, I'm not quite sure what the difference between a Winter Ale and a Christmas Ale is, after all, Christmas falls in the Winter time. I also don't know why Christmas and Halloween seem to be the only two holidays that exclusively get their own beers (Valentines, 4th of July or Kwanzaa beer anyone?). But I guess if beer suppliers are going to make a Christmas Ale, then I'm willing to try it.
          

This weekend a friend stopped by for a little beer sampling party/ Resident Evil deck building card game party (not my idea), and I had the opportunity to sample 2 Christmas Ale's, Shiner Holiday Cheer and Breckenridge Christmas Ale. The Shiner Holiday Cheer smelled like stinky old feet, but once I got past the smell I kind of enjoyed it's peachy flavor with subtle hints of pecan. The Breckenridge Christmas Ale was the better Christmas Ale, with pleasant hints of nutmeg.

We sampled other beer's too this weekend. Some highlights were the Gordon Biersch Czech Pilsner which was very light, Samuel Adam's The Vixen chili chocolate beer, and we sampled my final Schlafly Pumpkin Ale. I'm really going to miss that Schlafly Pumpkin Ale.

R.I.P Schlafly Pumpkin Ale

(until next fall)