The Twelve Beers of Christmas - Introduction
I’ve selected twelve beers to sample and write about this holiday season. These are in no particular order. The contents of the list is made up of stuff that just happens to be in my beer cooler. Here’s what I’ll be tasting:
1. Delirium Noël
2. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
3. Anchor Christmas Ale
4. Corsendonk Christmas Ale
5. Red Hook Winterhook
6. Blue Point Winter Ale
7. Magic Hat St Goötz
8. Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve
9. Saranac Winter Wassail
10. Caulier Blonde de Noël
11. Verhaeghe Kristmis
12. De Dolle Stille Nacht
That’s the line up for 2005. What I’m going to do is just give my impressions of each beer. I’ll be rating the beers too, but you shouldn’t really think of this as a beer review. These are my tasting notes, personal reflections averaged over several samplings. To rate the beers, I’m using a 20 point scale adapted from Fred Eckhardt’s book The Essentials of Beer Style. The twenty points is divided between four categories: nose, eyes, taste, and overall. Taste is weighted most heavily accounting for 10 of the available points.
So come back tomorrow, on Christmas Day, with a glass of Delirium Noël and let’s compare notes.
