We've got a great selection of Christmas beers in this year, going from your standard 330ml right up to a magnum (that's 1.5 litres) if you want to really push the boat out!
Starting out traditional, we have four Belgian small bottles. De Dolle's Stille Nacht is a real prestige beer. It comes in super strong at 12% but the sweetness and alcohol is offset by Nugget hop bitterness and acidity.
Saison Dupont's Avec Les Bon Voeux is an absolute classic, but it's not the dark spicy beer you might expect. Instead it's a blond beer that referments in the bottle, giving very complex aromas and a real capacity to age. Originally this was given as a present to Saison Dupont's best clients, but it was later commercialised due to popular demand. All the better for us!
St. Bernardus Christmas is much more of typical Christmas beer, a complex spiced quad with a dark colour, fruity nose and velvety mouthfeel. Also available in big bottles (see below!)
Delirium Christmas (or Noel, depending where you're from) is an amped up version of the classic Delirium Tremens. It's even stronger, coming in a 10%, and has spices added, for a complex, fruity, spicy beer. And look out for different labels with elephants doing various winter activities!
We've also got four non-Belgian small bottles, starting with Anchor’s Christmas Ale. This was one of the first ‘craft’ Christmas beers when it first first brewed in 1975, and it has been brewed every year since, making 2018 the 44th vintage. It contains a different blend of spices each year, but it’s always delicious!
Next up we've got Erdinger Schneeweiss, a dark top-fermenting wheat beer. It has a full-bodied spicy flavour thanks to the use of summer malts and lots of maturing time.
Mikkeller Xmas Wish is a Christmas version of their classic gluten-free IPA, with more malt coming through for some caramel spice flavours on top of the typical citrussy American hop aromas.
At the other end of the spectrum Wiper & True's Plum Pudding Porter is back! Brandy-soaked fruit, cinnamon and orange zest are added to dark malts to make a fruity, caramel, toasty beer.
If you're in the market for bigger bottles, we've got you covered too, with two 750mls and a magnum!
Our first 750ml is the Anspach & Hobday Pfeffernusse Saison, named after, and inspired by, German gingerbread cookies. The cookies are traditionally made with cloves and cinnamon, and accordingly this saison has notes of caramel, cloves, toffee and pepper.
We've also got the St. Bernardus Christmas Ale described above in big bottles...
And if you're in the market for something really special, we have magnums of Chimay Grande Reserve 2018 (in-store only!). This is the classic Chimay Blue, in a really big bottle, because sometimes 330ml just isn't enough. We also have some magnums of 3 Fonteinen Armand & Gaston in the back!
