Posted on 08/12/21
Oli Meade
The Christmas beers are coming out thick and fast!
So this week, we take a look at some of the best – including a Christmas Pudding Stout by Three Hills.
Ready?
Here are the beers you should gather up this week…
If you think wax-topping cans is completely pointless and a bit annoying, you’re absolutely right, but Three Hill have really put the practice into perspective – their new cans (seriously) are WAX-BOTTOMED! Is this a joke? Some kind of satire?! Who knows, but when you’re brewing beers of such a high calibre we need ask no questions!
Above you’ve got Nativitas BA Dark Christmas Sour, a Christmas-inspired Barrel Aged Dark Sour infused with cranberries, redcurrants and cinnamon. It’s caught people’s attention, cause already they’re flying off the shelves!
On the left, it’s a Three Hills special in Trium: Faba Tonka, Cacao & Vanilla Imperial Stout. Viscous, dark, decadent, it has it all, and it’s going to be amazing to bust out on a frosty Christmas eve.
Then, it’s only the bleeding Christmas Pudding Pastry Stout! Raisin, dates, Christmas spices; it’s all on offer, and for just £5.95 a can?! Bust it open with your Christmas pud, just as Three Hills suggest!
Garage are already one of the best hoppy breweries out there. And now, they’ve joined forces with three other world-renowned hop superstars to take hoppy brewing to a whole new level!
Garage’s Soup Showers NEIPA is with Other Half! It’s Soup – but with a hopping rate amped up by almost 50%!
Lost In The Logic DIPA is with Ireland’s Whiplash! Fruity, piney, and dank as you like.
Then there’s Steady Rolling Triangles, brewed with DEYA – yup, DEYA’s Steady Rolling Man taken to new heights.
Those into hops will want to scoop up all three – it’s that hard to choose between them. My own personal pick, if you’re really pushing me, is going to be Soup Showers. Imagine: Garage’s Soup, only elevated by Other Half!!
OK, Low Key & Vault City Collab The Lizard King Blueberry & Chocolate Stout. That’s right – Vault City’s name… emblazened across a stout!
And not just any stout.
A stout that also carries the name ‘Low Key’. Can brewing get any better?!
Expect luxury blueberry and indulgent chocolate madness (there’s a limit of one bottle per order on these to ensure as many people as possible get to try this.)
Next up, it’s barrel-aged goodness from Track in BA Giant Haystacks Coffee, Blueberry & Granola Impy Stout and BA If I Had A Soul Chocolate & Banana Stout.
Haystacks has it all: whisky, tartness, dark fruits and coffee.
The latter? After nearly two years in Jim Beam barrels, it’s all oak and bourbon with sticky peanut butter coated with melting dark chocolate.
(Oh, and it’s Track’s birthday, and they released this to celebrate!)
I could name pretty much any of the darks released this week in this blog post, but I’m going to go with a gem by Mad Squirrel because the brewery doesn’t get the love it deserves, and because I think the team there have come up with some quite unique stuff this week, especially with Crack Le Whip Dbl Walnut Milk Stout.
This is their extremely popular walnut whip of a beer, but with double the flavour, double the smooth, rich, chocolatey notes and double roasted nuts. And it’s double the strength!
Full Circle have been gathering steam and gaining acclaim throughout the year, and this week they’re back with hoppy goodness, including Dooper DIPA.
This is an amped up version of their outstanding Looper – which means even more citrus, lemon, lime and grapefruit. It’s great.
The just-in stuff from both is great, obviously, but I also want to highlight the new hoppy stuff by Floc.
Floc is a brewery all about hop-forward deliciousness, and that’s crystal clear in If We Were IPA.
Big notes of pineapple, there’s crushed mango going on, a good squeeze of citrus… and oats and wheat keep things smooo-oooth.
And don’t panic – I’m not gonna leave this section without mentioning the best from the west!
This week, for me, it’s gotta be Polly’s White Oak WCIPA.
So much pine and so much resin, all with Polly’s characteristic juice factor. The can art, too, is epic stuff.
Time to get serious on the sours, because serious brewing is exactly what Holy Goat are about, and they’ve weighed in with a 1-2 punch in new blends Sunslayer and Blood Eagle.
So much goes into these things it really is unreal.
Sunslayer is such a unique ‘raw’ beer – made in a unique way (without boiling the wort), part barrel-aged, plus with Spanish apricots and Tanzanian vanilla, it’s got everything and then some.
But then Blood Eagle is arguably even better – with smoked plums, rye whisky and red wine, is this even a beer anymore?!
Vault City’s latest drop meets their usual stratospheric standards, and Apple, Cherry, Cinnamon Swirl might even surpass them.
At any other time of year this’d just be a delicious, doughnut-like treat.
But its release date, in my mind, puts it firmly in the ‘Christmassss’ category.
(Thinking about it, the same is probably true of Three Hills’ Forbidden Fruit: Cranberry Sour.)
As always, I really hope you get to enjoy some of these wicked new beers over Christmas. Last postage date is the 22nd December!
Happy drinking!
Oli, Olly & Charlie
(The three people behind Craft Metropolis)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
