12 Beers of Christmas 2021 Reprise

[Dec. 26, 2022]–It’s that most wonderful time of the year, time to rev up the 2022 12 Beers of Christmas. I would have started the engine sooner, but the monkey wrench of Covid put the clinker into those plans by stuffing up my nose and shutting down the tasting apparatus.

Enough of my troubles. Let’s review: each year since 2012 I’ve tasted and written about 12 holiday ales or winter warmers, trying but usually failing to do it all in 12 consecutive days. Every beer has been different, even the perennial lead-off, the Anchor Christmas Ale, since its recipe changes every year.

Granted, I’ve occasionally snuck in an extra here and there, but to keep it neat, that’s 120 beers from around the world over the last ten years. So might as well keep it going, if I can lay my hands on 12 more. I haven’t yet, partially because it’s becoming more difficult to easily obtain brews I haven’t had before.

I did request some beers from brewers. Several acquiesced and some came through; some apparently reneged. So it may be difficult to keep my usual promise of plowing through all 12 beers by the actual twelfth day of Christmas, January 5. And this may be the first all-U.S. collection.

Last year I did a sort of Greatest Hits list, and that’s still up at SI.com. But I note with sadness that one of the beers on that list is no longer available, the Holiday Ale from the Spencer Brewery. The sole U.S. Trappist brewery is no more, as the Massachusetts monastery decided to shutter its brewing operations.

As always, I warm up for the 12 Beers exercise with some previously featured evergreen brews that have not changed their recipe over the many years of their existence, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and Deschutes Brewery Jubelale. The latter, which first appeared on the list in 2014, resurfaced in 2021 but only because the brewery was kind enough to send me its Imperial version, barrel-aged after an infusion of cherries.

The 2022 Jubelale is in the photo up top (and in the glass), along with the Anchor, Celebration and two alumni: last year’s 3 Floyds Alpha Klause and 2012’s Winter Lager from Samuel Adams.

The Jubelale does change its label every year with an original piece of artwork from, up to this point, local or Oregon artists. This year’s label above is from Francisco Morales of Portland. But for next year Deschutes has sent out an open call to artists anywhere in the U.S.

Morales is a freelance Latinx illustrator and designer, his Instagram site here. Morales grew up in the arid climes of southern California’s Coachella Valley. He said his label was inspired by his first experience of snow and winter in Oregon: “I’ll never forget my first trip to the Pacific Northwest, and nothing would prepare me for the winter and snowfall where the sound dampens and light changes, as if you are on another planet. As a collaborator for this year’s Jubelale design, this piece attempts to capture the emotions of that extraterrestrial feeling.”

Francisco Morales with this year’s Jubelale label artwork

As for last year’s beers, it was a splendid earthbound crop. There were two contenders in the low (or at least lower) ABV running, the Shiner Holiday Cheer and the Skygazer Watercolors Christmas Creamee. Both came in at 5.4%, both were laden with fruit, yet they were poles apart stylistically. Shiner tasted heavily of peaches, but was a traditional, clear brew. The Skygazer was laden with raspberries, but was an opaque, well, creamee of a beer. No worries, as there are few rules as to what constitutes a holiday beer.

They are often strong, and the rest of the roster clocked in at 7% ABV or above. The lidlifting champ was the Mikkeller Santa’s Little Helper at 10.9%, though I sort of cheated that day and added the Evil Twin Aún Más Chili Jesús (12%) honorarius.

If all of last year’s beers were well done, I could have lived fine without either the Skygazer or the Southern Tier Frosted Sugar Cookie, only because they were too sweet for my taste. Both were the beers they set out to be. The Greater Good Imperial Brewing Gingerbread Ale skirted being overly sweet, though I would have preferred a bit more heft with that one.

My favorites were probably the Deschutes Cherry Jubelale, a cherry-laden version of the annual Deschutes Jubelale, and the pFriem Belgian-style Christmas Ale, a no-nonsense brew that was simply superbly made. The N’ice Chouffe was right up there, too.

I hope to have as many good ones this year, just as I hope my sense of smell recovers more fully. If not, there’s always context! For now, here’s the complete list of all the beers from the last ten years, with links to each entry:

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The 12 Beers of Christmas

2021