Best Beers for the Holidays

Whether you're looking for a tasty brew to pair with your Festivus feast or just want to get merry with your fam, I've got a beer for you:


Festivus Feast - Before you open up the Airing of Grievances, I recommend opening a bottle of Hibernus Quentum. The Belgian Tripel is my favorite style for holiday meals. They're effervescent, lifting fat and flavors off your tongue to clear your palate. The spice matches up with holidays seasoning. And they're complex enough to beat or match any wine most of us could afford.

Urthel Hibernus Quentum
De Leyerth Brouwerijen (Urthel)
Tripel | 9.00% ABV

A- / 4.25
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | drink: 4.5

Poured from a skinny 330ml bottle, there's a tall white head with loud (relatively speaking) bubbles. On my tongue the beer is a little flatter than many Belgian, but that, I think, brings out more flavor instead of simply stinging my tongue. The flavor starts with a wonderful mixture of fresh baked white bread and earthy honey and ends with a hint of spicy hops for balance. In the aftertaste, a slight orange and cream flavor develops that's quite nice. The aroma has a slightly simpler profile with a mild perfume of Belgian candy and fresh (mild) herbs, like I've got one nostrel in a candy store and another in a garden.

This is a very well made Belgian tripel, though the complexity comes from its subtleties, so be prepared to stop and ponder the depths of this beer to enjoy to its fullest.


Get Merry - Look no further for liquid cheer - or just a great beer to sip by a fire. Bourbon-barrel beers are all over the board, some too thick and syrupy, some are thin and don't really resemble any sort of whiskey. Goose Island's BCS balances big mocha stout with smooth vanilla bourbon while providing a hell of a punch.

Bourbon County Stout
Goose Island
American Double / Imperial Stout | 13.00% ABV

A / 4.4
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | drink: 5

Vintage 2007, 13% abv.

Easily the smoothest, tastiest ~13% beer I've ever had. Yes, it's a bit thick, but no more so than weaker double or imperial stouts. The aroma is rich with the bourbon which once on the palate, doesn't dominate, but compliments the strong, dark chocolate ad espresso flavors. Throw in a dash of oak and vanilla and you've got a hell of a beer. More please.


Party Like it's 1999 - If you're looking to party through this year and into the next, you'll need a session beer that won't knock you on your ass to fast. Pikeland Pils is Sly Fox's hoppy take on this classic German will satisfy your palate from first beer to the last.

Pikeland Pils
Sly Fox Brewing Company
German Pilsener | 4.90% ABV

A- / 4.2
look: 5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | drink: 4

This beer looks amazing, it has a white head that won't stop and reminds me of Duvel. Smells of sweet, light malts. The flavor is bland at first but then the hops kick in. Overall tastes of long-lasting grassy, earthy hops with added grapefruit and a bit of fruity malt. A little hoppier than the imports I've had, more like Prima Pils. Actually it's a lot like Prima Pils, but I think I like this better. My can was a touch over carbonated, but it was still very drinkable.

I've heard people recommend this to beer noobs, but I dont think I'd do the same. The flavor is really all in the bitterness, so if you're not into that, tough.