When it comes to Christmas beers, we’ve come a long way from regular brown brews with some cloves, cinnamon or other vaguely festive flavours shoved in.
In recent years, craft breweries across the UK have turned the idea of what makes a Christmas beer around by instead focusing on the actual tastes of the season — the sweet treats we shove down our gobs while vegging out on the sofa.
Last year I enjoyed Welsh brewery Tiny Rebel’s takes on Crimbo classics, with beers created to taste like Matchmakers mint chocolates, and even one designed to replicate a “The Purple One” chocolate from a pack of Quality Streets.
And this Christmas I was happy to see local north-east breweries Fierce and Brew Toon getting in on the action, with their own unusual Christmassy offerings.
Here’s how I rated Fierce’s chocolate orange and after eight-esque beers, Brew Toon’s winter cobbler, and finally, I look at how they matched up with a true Christmas classic from Belgium.
Beer 1: Chocolate Orange Moose, Fierce Beer
- 4.5%
- £4.15 per 440ml can on the Fierce Beer website
- Fierce Beer, Aberdeen
- Style: Session stout
Whenever I’m in the sweetie aisle, if they’re even a penny off the usual price, you can bet I’m taking home a bushel of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges, they’re absolutely my favourite treat.
So, being an expert in chocolate oranges, I was excited to see how Fierce’s chocolate orange stout would be.
I was not disappointed.
It’s genuinely quite eerie how well this replicates the tastes of that delicious, yet impractically-shaped chocolate.
Thick and flavourful, with loads of chocolate and vanilla to back up the orange-ness, I’d love it if these sold year-round… take note, Fierce, sometimes a beer shouldn’t just be for Christmas.
Rating: 4.5/5
Beer 2: Triple Fruited Winter Cobbler, Brew Toon
- 7%
- £4.90 a 440ml can on the Brew Toon website
- Brew Toon, Peterhead
- Style: Fruit sour
If there’s anything better than Christmas dinner, it’s Christmas dinner’s dessert.
My own family usually goes for trifle, but after trying out this winter cobbler flavour beer from Brew Toon, I may have to change up that tradition.
This 7% sour really packs a punch, and not just in booziness.
You almost have to take a deep breath before reeling off the ingredients here: cherry strawberry, honeyberry, cinnamon, vanilla, and demerara sugar.
Tangy and powerful, the best thing about this one is how the cinnamon works without overwhelming everything else, making it sort of like a cobbler in a glass.
It’s a great drink, but I wouldn’t have more than one in a Christmas beer drinking sesh, as it’s deceptively strong.
Rating: 4/5
Beer 3: Mint Chocolate Moose, Fierce Beer
- 4.5%
- £4.15 a 440ml can on the Fierce Beer website
- Fierce Beer, Aberdeen
- Style: Session stout
And here’s the exact opposite of orange in flavour, as anyone who has ever had orange juice after brushing their teeth knows — mint.
Styled after the After Eight chocolates, this is a stout packing loads of minty, sugary-sweetness.
But does mint work in a beer?
The answer from my perspective is… sort of.
It’s kind of like drinking a liquified mint choc chip ice cream in flavour, and definitely reminiscent of After Eights.
To me, mint feels a bit too unusual in a drink that’s not a cocktail.
But if you’re after something totally different, I don’t think you’ll find many other beers like this available anywhere in Scotland.
Rating: 3.5/5
Beer 4: Christmas Ale, St Bernardus Brewery
- 10%
- £4.89 a 330ml bottle from Hop Shop in Westhill
- St Bernardus, Belgium
- Style: Christmas Ale
I thought next to all these fancy, new-fangled minty orangey fruity Christmas beers from Scotland, I’d try them up against a classic from Belgian brewery St Bernardus.
Featuring a santa-hatted monk on the front, snowfall, as well as red and green label design, you don’t get more traditional Christmas beer than this.
I’ve had it a good few Christmases before from various good bottleshops around Aberdeen, but what a treat it still is.
At 10%, it’s the strongest beer I’ve reviewed so far in my beer column, and you definitely feel it.
As a beer, it’s more the experience of drinking a glass of wine than necking some pints with your pals.
This is a drink that’s complex, and extremely lively as you can see from the head, that tastes like a festive fruit cake made with liberal lashings of booze.
Seek it out in the beers from abroad section of your local bottleshop.
Rating: 4.5/5Â
Kieran is a former craft beer barman and publishes his beer column every Tuesday online. You can also read his column in the P&J’s Food and Drink magazine, which you can find inside your Press and Journal newspaper every Saturday.
Conversation