Finding the PERFECT Christmas Beer: Part 2 | How to Drink
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- Опубликовано: 4 июн 2024
- You called me out on all the Christmas beers I missed, so I went back to the store and found 14 more of them and I'm reviewing them now. Let's go, HO HO HO!
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I Drank Every Christmas Beer: • I Drank every Christma...
Egg Nog Review and Taste Test: • Egg Nog Review and Tas...
Christmas Cocktails from Hell: • Christmas Cocktails fr...
00:00 - 2 Christmas 2 Beers
00:46 - Southern Tier Old Man Winter
02:16 - Saranac Snow Cloud IPA
03:27 - Delirium's Noel
05:12 - Samuel Smith Winter Ale
06:40 - Troegs Mad Elf vs Troegs Grand Cru
10:16 - Harpoon Winter Warmer
11:15 - Abita Christmas Ale
12:20 - Founders Ginger, Spice and Everything Nice
14:01 - Duclaw's Sweet Baby Jesus
16:02 - Ommegang Everything Naughty
17:40 - Long Trail Brewing Hibernator
20:27 - St. Bernardus Christmas Ale
22:18 - New Belgian Holiday Ale
23:36 - 3 Floyds Alpha Klaus
26:22 - Still not all...but closer
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I'm up to 27 Christmas beers reviewed total now, are there more I'm still missing?! Let me know- and the best way to reach me is in my Discord server, which you can access at the $5 level on my Patreon bit.ly/H2DPatreon See you in there!
Don't forget to check out Curiada - bit.ly/notbeerbutjustasgood - for spirits you might not be able to find in your local liquor store. Check out the How to Drink Collection for bottles you see on the show.
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I Drank Every Christmas Beer: ruclips.net/video/fP6shfbTGIA/видео.htmlsi=jQqVfBbwow00gur3
Egg Nog Review and Taste Test: ruclips.net/video/KyG93WoVZFY/видео.htmlsi=rjk6k-7kevZLIj6u
Christmas Cocktails from Hell: ruclips.net/video/Rpp1KTmZyoI/видео.htmlsi=mxZVT0kTbOeA8Yow
You are missing one of the Belgian Big 3 Christmas Beers: Chouffe N'ice.
St Bernardus, Delerium and Chouffe ... one more to add a little more Merry to your Christmas.
The Sam Adam's Old Fezziwig. Christmas in a bottle!
Also missing the Gouden Carolus Christmas!
Miasing the Jule Malt, Xmas quad, and Yule M#@!*?k Rhum & Cacao Edition BA from To Ol!
Regular and BA Santa's Little Helper from Admundsen
I feel obliged to mention that Abita, being a Louisiana beer, is for Christmas down here on the Gulf Coast -- relatively warm and damp. The brighter, tarter, more bitter beers tend to drink better on a December evening where it's 70 degrees and 93% humidity, as it is today. It doesn't do what a Christmas beer does up north, and that's likely by design. Regionalism in brewing is interesting and says a lot about where beers and ciders come from, and how that plays out with national distribution changes the beer's context.
Sam Smith's is an odd one over here in the UK. Their beers are typically only ever found in their own Sam Smith's pubs, of which there aren't that many around, but once you're in a Sam Smith's pub, everything available is Smith's branded, including for example, the sodas/mixers. I didn't even know they existed until stumbling across one of their establishments in a London backstreet in my twenties, then learned they're from Tadcaster, a town famous for two bigger breweries that produce much more well known brands. So yeah, then discovering that every American I've met since then grew up knowing the brand is a little surprising.
Oh that is weird! Yeah they’re in almost any decent beer shop in the States
They make amazing beers! From the USA.
I really enjoy the apricot one of Samuel smith's but can't seem to find it as easily as I did years ago
@@howtodrink The "weird" aspect of the guy who owns it is that he forbids people using phones (to speak on) in the pubs, and will legit throw people out for swearing out loud. Eccentric fellow. No music either. Cheapest beer you'll find in central London however.
Sam Smith's chocolate stout is super fucking good
Greg forced to drink over 2000 calories in beer once again! Delirious Elf sounds friggin delicious. Cheers 🍻
LOL…”forced”…😅
Greg: I like Belgian ales
Also Greg: I don’t like banana flavors in my ales
🍺🍌
Nah, give me all the belgians and all the hefes
Natty Daddy's are among the cheapest gas station beers, but OMG, let them get up to room temp and if you like those banana flavors they will blow your mind.
The Last Peel:
Equal parts of
- Smith & Cross
- Banana liquor (Tempus Fugit or Giffard)
- Fransiskaner heffeweizen
- Lemon juice
@@logicalparadox2897 sounds amazing, if only our stupid control state would carry Smith and Cross or Tempus Fuget's banana liqueur.
@jonathandavis490 I have never even been tempted to try a Natty Daddy, but I have to say, _that_ makes me curious.
Greg the style of beer you’re looking for in a Christmas beer sounds like a barley wine
Barleywines are incredible, english-style tend to be more approachable fresh/young, the american style really wants to be aged.
They are so much of absolutely everything and nothing at all like any other type of beer out there, definitely a "must try" at some point imo and one of my all-time favorites.
The one from Quebec is (maybe) Le Fin Du Monde (the end of the world) by "Unibroue" brewery. One of my own personal favs
Their beers are phenomenal. And hard to find.
@@tamcon72 I'll count my blessings that I live in quebec. Look in any grocery store and you'll find some.
@ Lucky you!
Belgian here: thanks for reminding me that even for silly seasonal beers we don't miss!
Belgium beer culture and quality is criminally underrated
I’m from Ghent, so as soon as he pulled out the Delirium, I was like “don’t screw this up”😂
Trappiste Rocheforts are my favorite beer but St Bernadus Christmas Ale is fun for the holidays!
La Fin du Monde, is an amazing beer and one of my favorites.
The British craft beer scene is low-key obsessed with American styles, so it's interesting to hear that it goes both ways!
2 comments: One, Sweet Baby Jesus is delightful and I think in certain liquor stores I'm able to find it year round. Second, if you do another one of these, please do one of Old Fezziwig or the Oaked Vanilla Porter from Sam Adams. I mourn the loss of their Chocolate Bock, though.
Can confirm, Old Fezziwig is tasty. And available in 6 packs this year. (Apparently this is the first year it's available by itself and not just in variety packs.)
When it comes to developing tasting as a skill, the biggest thing is realizing that tasting is simply just recalling things you've had in the past. And the best way to get better at it is to look to try things new to you... the bottom line being, the more things you've tasted, the bigger your tasting 'lexicon' becomes
I just got Great Lakes Christmas Ale! It's great, it's simple. No extras. No gimmicks.
Sam Adam's Old Fezziwig might be my Christmas Favorite.
Fun thing about Christmas beer in Denmark, we have almost a "holiday" around it. The biggest brand of beer in Denmark, Tuborg, releases their Christmas beer on a specific day every year since the 80's. We call it "J-day" and refers to it as the day "the snow falls". Everyone goes out on bars or meet up with friends to get a Tuborg Christmas beer, making it one of the biggest "go out and drink" days of the year.
It is really just a marketing stunt by Tuborg, but at this point is has become something akin to New Year's Eve where people use it as a good excuse to meet up and drink.
Oh, so you mean the artificial banana that is supposed to be like the cultivar that mostly died off from disease that was the actual popular type of banana flavor with the modern banana being a disease resistant fruit.
If you look at American recipes using bananas from before the 1960s, they're using a banana called the Gros Michel and the recipe can't taste like intended with the banana you find in the store unless they carry Bluefield.
Sierra Celebration Ale is still missing. Surely you don’t live in the one zip code in America without access to Sierra Nevada beers.
that bit on listening to music is so interesting because, as a musician (who also loves tasting things; tea in my case) that's how I've always tried to relate the process to people, "it's like focusing on different instruments in a song, and the different tastes are like different pitches and timbres of instruments and whatnot", but I never made the connection of actually training taste sensitivity (in the way of being able to peel apart tasting notes) by active listening (the term for that sort of focused, specific listening). I'm gonna have to try that out with intention now!
The beer that finally turned me on to IPA's was an unfiltered cask IPA. It was so freaking good... Probably over 20 years ago now 🤣
The one hoppy beer I've legitimately loved was Sorachi Ace.
That Canadian brewery is Unibroue. I quite like them, fin du monde, trois pistoles, maudite. But my fav is Terrible.
I enjoy the general "Hey, this is decent" that Southern Tier is getting in these videos. Big fan of a lot of their stuff.
If you can get your hands on it, try Odell Brewing Isolation Ale. It's not Christmas themed per say, but it is their seasonal winter ale. It always warms me up during the holidays.
If you want some foreign christmas beers next holiday season - let me know! I'm from Sweden and we have a pretty good domestic market + a bunch of belgian and czech beers available.
Isn't it illegal to ship alcohol internationally without some kind of special license or something?
You know it’s going to be good when Greg is lit at the beginning of the episode. Visions of sugarplums were dancing in his head by the end. I can’t wait for part three!
That Belgium beer was la fin monde and its one of my favs.
Fun fact! The runts/candy banana flavor is actually what bananas used to taste like. The gros michel was *the* banana until the 50s, when disease basically wiped it out (since banana trees are all clones of each other they’re supper susceptible to parasites and fungus). The banana now is the Cavendish, which has far less of the flavor compounds, which is why candy and fruit are so wildly different.
the Cavendish is also suffering from a fungal disease as well, possibly string down the barrel of extinction just like the Gros Michel!
I want to try some Gros Michels sometime, but I've only seen onw place selling them, and I'm not paying $100 to get fruit shipped to me, especially when I know there is a 0% chance I will eat it all before it rots.
If it's available in your area, one of my favorites is Revolution Brewing's Fistmas. When I go visiting in the Chicago area I make it an annual quest to find someplace that has it on tap. Cans are good too, but nothing seems to beat draft!
The Québec beer you really liked was probably "La fin du monde", which means "The end of the world". Great beer btw!
Yes! I love it!
@@howtodrink Unibroue!
I wanted to bring up the same suggestion i made last time. Next year you should do either a pumpkin beer round up/review or do the same for oktoberfest beers.
Hell yeah, those were my two favorite styles when i still drank!
I loved the talk about using music to pick apart flavor. As someone who has always been musically oriented, this was a perfect description of how I use the tools I have to learn new things.
Sierra Nevada's Celebration. It's an IPA, Gregg won't like but it's excellent. Also Bell's winter white.
Since you like the delirium and Sint Bernardus beers it looks like it's time for a Belgian beer episode Greg!
as a goth philadelphian with a goth boyfriend who works on south st, it was really cool to see you reminisce about your goth days in philly :)
Why is no one else laughing about the "toe destroyer mugs" comment? That was quite a moment on the channel.
This got me too
In Austria Christmas Beers are actually a rarity. Despite being a Nation with many Breweries. You have some breweries that do some more Seasonal stuff with Golser and their Kästensud (a more Chestnut-like tasting beer) and Stiegl and their Winter Variations. For us in Winter it is more the season of Glühwein (Variants of Hot Spiced Wines) and Punch.
It is interesting to see Christmas Beers.
4:40 ish,I think you're thinking of "la fin du monde" by Unibroue, which is a fantastic Belgian Tripel.
Another fantastic video! Your videos are always so cozy, something I can always come back to if I'm feeling down and need a laugh
The bit about listening to music and connecting that to picking out flavors is genius. You should make a short or TikTok out of it. Great advice!
Southern Tier Frosted Sugar Cookie Ale is a MUST TRY
You have such good advice. The tasting notes tip was incredible.
Mad Elf is my favorite holiday beer. I lived near Tröegs for several years, and I visited the brewery often. Some of my favorite beers, and they had fantastic food as well.
The thing with a Grand Cru tasting like cherry is that there is no cherry in it at all. It's the fermentation with brett and the choice of malts. A good Grand Cru is a fantastically complex sour ale that ages like a fine wine.
While generally true, Troegs Grand Cru does have cherries in it.
@@Bobbias Ah, that's too bad. It basically means it's not properly made, and shouldn't be called a grand cru.
@@aenamabag As far as I'm aware there is no such hard requirement for what makes a Grand Cru beer. While Grand Crus may not typically include cherries, even wikipedia includes the mention of Landemans producing a kriek Grand Cru.
The banana notes are a common feature of wheat beer and are big in Belgian beers. They are often carried with a clove flavour so turn up in Christmas beers too.
I’ve forgotten the name but the German state-owned brewery does a great wheat beer with a warm banana undertone
weihenstephaner? Banana and bubble gum all day lol so good. And dirt cheap!
Wow that advice on tasting notes is cool! I happen to pick out instruments in songs already and I figured my taste was developing mostly from watching you 😂
Went grocery shopping today and swung by the beer aisle real quick, was super excited to find some St. Bernardus Christmas Ale and immediately picked up two bottles.
Very much looking forward to trying those.
Just bought some Delirium Noel for Christmas. Thanks for the tip!
Boulevard Brewery's Nutcracker Ale from Kansas City is a pretty good one
St. Bernardus is a great company. The founder basically learned techniques and recipes from the Trappist monks, and then started his own brewery to fill what used to be a very underserved market. Most Trappist monasteries would only sell enough ale to stay afloat, and the rest was for themselves. These guys continue selling and make profit. Their 12 is PHENOMENAL.
I have a collection of empty Three Floyd’s six pack cases because I love their artwork.
Thank you so much for the music trick been struggling with putting words to my tasting. That is a weird sentence. But it helps a lot. Thanks again.
3 Floyd’s is in steel mill country in Northern Indiana. I’ve only been there once and the brewery pretty much exclusively play metal loud af and all the tvs were playing campy b movies. Fun experience
Seeing how much you enjoyed Long Trail I’d love to see you try an episode of all Vermont Craft Beers as they have some EXCELLENT breweries all over the state: examples include Long Trail, Alchemist, and my personal favorite Fiddlehead
You know what people like at Christmas? Cider. Not mulled and spiked apple juice, but cider brewed like beer. Dry, bubbly, even with hops. Now it has become a microbrewery thing. Taste test. Best one I ever had was in 700 year old pub in England.
Well… seeing how this video is performing (outrageously bad) I’m not sure I’m gonna tempt fate further and go for cider
3floyds always uses mostly citra hops in their beers, citra hops have a very strong citrus flavor, which is more refreshing instead of being just dry and bitter.
Easily one of my favorite breweries.
Here in BC Canada (if they still make it) we have Granville Island Winter Ale - not hoppy, dark ale with strong vanilla notes. Very easy to drink too much. There was also "the Herminator" - a chocolate/coffee dark ale that is really easy to get drunk on.
Hey Greg, at 4:35 you're thinking of La Fin du Monde by Unibroue out of Quebec. I really like that and Trois Pistoles.
Any Chocolate porter or stout (must be heavy on the chocolate) and a belgian style Cherry Kriek tastes exactly like black forest cake. One of my favourite beer combos. Up in the great white north I use Phillips longboat chocolate porter and Lindemans Cherry Kriek. 2 parts porter to 1 part kriek. I bet if you mixed the Troggs grand cru, and the Baby Jesus you'd get close. Is mixing beer with beer a cocktail? Not a bad episode idea actually.
Greg, you should do the Hershey, PA tradition of cellaring a Mad Elf to try next year. The honey really comes through.
Troggs does a lead up call Naked Elf. It is the belgium triple base to the Mad Elf (so not really a Christmas beer). Phenomenal beer, good luck finding it outside of Hershey PA area.
Tröegs also makes a "Naked Elf" which is brewed without the cherries, honey, and chocolate malt that is used in Mad Elf
Great episode, and it makes me happy to know Greg reads these comments.
So Greg, if you are reading this, I'd sure love to see an episode on the FUNKIEST rums. Just super funky town stuff like Savanna HERR, Rum Fire, or Dr Bird stuff!
That glassware you're drinking the Mad Elf(s) out of is hella cool.
I wanna try that Noel so bad. I'm with you, Belgian ale is fantastic. I'll always remember the first time the bartender I used to back served me a Chimay at the end of a long night years ago 🤤 Loved them ever since.
With the Sweet Baby Jesus, I wonder if you would taste the peanut butter more as it warmed up a bit? I've had a few like that where the peanuts don't show up until the chill leaves the glass. Or maybe it's just too light on the PB and it's overwhelmed by the chocolate, who knows.
Yeah that's a good idea - Serve "British style".
I've had it, and can confirm that it gets more peanutty as it warms.
It could be old. A fresh can reeks of peanut smell and flavor but it would definitely start dropping off the older it gets.
4:30 Unibroue's La Fin du Monde! Their Blanche de Chambly is my personal favourite of all beers (Though Cheval Blanche is great too!) Great to see a beverage I recognize on here every once and a while as a Canadian viewer.
The Canadian Belgian style you might have been thinking of was fin du monde, an excellent if strong beer
Yeah La Fin Du Monde would be from Unibroue brewery in Quebec, they do some pretty damn nice belgian style ales.
This looks fun. I've never been someone who could really stomach beer, but this makes me want to try.
St. Arnold's out of Houston, TX! You had shiner cheer in the first round, but I haven't seen the St. Arnold's offering. A much more solid beer IMO. Also, side note since you've done a little mixing: St. Arnolds has a taproom at the brewery, and for a long time visitors were asking them mix the Christmas Ale with their year round IPA, Elissa. It got so popular that the brewery actually bottled and sold it for a few years along with their standard Christmas Ale. It was called Sailing Santa (Elissa is named after a ship) and it was really good.
Delirium is my jam. My gateway into non-lager/pilsner beers from 15 years ago. Glad you like the Noel!
Regardless of the outcome of this - Thank You! Thank You for being the first American YT content creator I've seen pronounce "Yorkshire" without butchering the "Shire" part
If you ever come up North, in Québec, we have a distiller/brewer that spécialise in stouts. You would be in heavin by the quality of the Christmas ales and dark cacao Milk stouts
Here’s the thing about hops: there’s two ways to use hops and most beers seem to focus on one. You can add hops early / mid-way through the cooking process and boil off all of the volatile oil, leaving the resin, bittering oils; or you can add the hops at the end and extract bright, floral aromas and flavors. Most hop-forward beers seem to lean heavily on the former. I prefer beers that are more like the latter. But I find I really like the beers that put the grains forward.
I live in mexico and here the traditional christmas beer is modelo noche buena. Gotta admit its pretty good! Hope you can get to try it
I read an article awhile back about educating your palate. It said you can do it with anything, because it's about just learning to pay attention to your tastebuds. It suggested apples, tho. You can do this in groups, too. Buy several apples of different breeds. Blindly taste each one and write down your thoughts about what it tastes like. If you're in a group, compare notes, reveal which apple it was, and then retaste and see how your perception of it changed.
A bar I knew would add a shot of espresso to a beer of your choice, and Sweet Baby Jesus was the easiest combo ever :D (I also believe it's a year-round beer.)
The music analogy of following one instrument for developing tasting notes of alcohol is awesome. Now that I know this, I can see how Greg describes the tasting notes of his drinks.
Titanic Plum Porter is my Christmas ale. Just so enjoyable
Southern Tier 2xmas & Mad Elf are my yearly favorites, but im sitting here enjoying my Sam Adams Old Fezziwig which finally came out in 6packs in my area this year....
Just when I though Greg couldn’t get more likeable he reveals he is not hopps kinda guy. My man!!
And the moment that Delirium Noel showed up on screen I knew he was in for a treat!
This was awesome! Glad to see that Greg will leave no cork unpopped in search of the Christmas spirit!
The québécois company is Unibroue. Fin du Monde is one of their flagship beers.
It's the esters from the yeast in the Belgain beers that give you that banana or fruit loops flavor!
I've seen it mentioned before but Sam Adam's ole fezziwig is one of my favorite
I'm glad you got to Delirium's Noel and that you enjoyed it. It's soooooooo good! I'm also a Belgian ale enthusiast lol
La Fin Du Monde is a Tripel style beer brewed by Unibroue in Chambly, QC, Canada.
As a Coloradan, glad to see the state represented, with Breckenridge and New Belgium. The other big Christmas/winter beer I would recommend is Avery's Old Jubilation.
Also I really wish Southern Tier would distribute out here more, because there have been a bunch of beers I see from them that I want but can't find around here.
Greg’s gotta get one of those upward facing spouts that bars have to rinse glasses quickly
You need to up your beer glass game Greg! Insanely the glass makes a difference. You need to do an episode where you try the same beers out of standard pints and out of the recomended glassware. Especially an IPA glass thoses things threw me for a loop.
Boozy raisiny Belgium ales are the best in winter. Delirium, stBarny and mad elf are my go too. If you like sours prairie makes a cranberry ginger sour called seasick crocodile that’s like cranberry ginger ale 🤤 total wine prob carries it.
I’ve never heard about the technique to listen to music to help with tasting and separating flavors. I’ll have to try that in the future.
Gotta try Gingerbread Stout, Christmas Morning, or Kentucky Christmas Morning, all brewed by Hardywood
Samual smith is my go to ale I love that stuff anything from that I’ll try
The banana part in many beer are (of course) not by mistake, but often comes from the yeast.
A couple more recommendations for Christmas beer (you can save 'em for next year, if you'd like): Lump of Coal and the "Bad Elf" series, both from Ridgeway.
Greg I don’t know what happened but you truly seem like your enjoying your job again, it’s always good to see you truly happy about your show
Shipyard's Prelude (from Portland Maine) is something you should add to your list. Or is Northern New England not good enough for your Yule Tide? (I'm mostly kidding about that last part)
My favorite winter beer is UFO Winter Blonde. I couldn’t find it last year and so far haven’t seen it yet this year, hopefully they still make it. It’s light and creamy and I think it has a light coffee taste.
Might be hard to get a hold of where you're at but, Great Lakes Christmas Ale is my personal pick from the Ohio/Lake Erie region. Always know its the start of the holiday season when I start seeing it in stores.
DuClaw is from Baltimore. Good stuff. They do a peanut butter version of the Sweet Baby. I recommend you find that one.
Back when I used to drink I would enjoy this chocolate orange beer. Can't remember who brewed it though. But they had won some awards for it. Tasted exactly like a chocolate orange.
You should try Seasick Crocodile from Prairie Artisan Ales in OKC.