St. Bernardus Christmas Ale

As January comes to a close and the weather outside slowly gets warmer (I definitely rocked shorts the other day), it brings us to a close of the winter beers. Now I know that there are plenty of more winter brews in the world and I only scratched the surface with my selection but I tried to cover some of the more likely beers that you will find in your local liquor stores. For our last winter beer session I'm going to go a little out of the box and go with a smaller brewery that you may or may not be able to find in your local store. The brewery in question is the St. Bernadus Brewery located in Belgium and produces a wide range of different beers and the one that we'll be looking at is the St. Bernardus Christmas Ale. First off, the beer is not cheap costing around 11 dollars for a 750 ml bottle (about the size of your average wine bottle). The upside to the beer, before actually tasting the beer, is that the ABV of the beer is 10%, which is almost double that of a normal beer. The beer is a dark beer with a very strong and distinct flavor which leaves a lingering aftertaste in your palate. The beer has a strong fruit flavor to it which is dominated by the orange in it but at the same time the beer is very smooth and does not have a bitter taste that comes from beers with a lot of hops. The only downside to the beer is the lingering aftertaste that it leaves that sits on in the back of your throat. All in all, the beer is an above average winter beer that would definitely go really nice after hours while hanging out with a couple friends around the fireside. It is a beer I think beer lovers should definitely try and should get a chance to please but will not be every body's favorite.

Overall Score - 6.0

The next category of beers is up for grabs. I'm looking to do IPA's or maybe wheat beers, not sure yet, if you have any suggestions let me know.

BG

Sierra Nevada - Celebration Ale

The first beer of the winter season that's on the chopping block is the ever popular, Sierra Nevada's winter special- Celebration Ale. Since this is a full review of the beer I'll cover everything from price to taste including all of the niceness in between.

The Celebration Ale is average costing beer (I paid around $8 dollars for a six pack) that has an ABV of 6.8 which will do the job of getting you on the road to feeling good. But forget about where the beer leads you and lets focus on the taste and see if this is a winter ale that beer lovers will enjoy while hanging out with friends on a cold winter night. The beer has a strong bitter taste to it which I rather enjoy in the ale variety of beers but a female friend of mine and my brother really did not enjoy the Celebration Ale because of how bitter the taste was. The thing that really struck me about the beer was how easy it was to drink and that it was not a heavy beer that sits in your stomach like a ton of bricks. After having the first couple the beers I enjoyed a couple of slices of pizza and the beer really paired well with the pepperoni pizza that I had. Overall, I think that the Celebration Ale is a little over-hyped for how expensive it is but is not a bad beer. If you're not a fan of a bitter tasting beer than I would stay away from this particular brand of Sierra Nevada's but, in two words, not bad.

Overall Score - 6.2 out of 10

Stay posted for future winter specialities.