Sugar plums, cookies, candy and strong Russian tea. Winter in general and winter holidays in particular call for bright, sweet, spicy parties in our mouths. This applies to beer as much as to mince pie.
Yet there was a dark time, not so long ago, when Alaska beer drinkers were pretty much relegated to stubby brown bottles of Olympia, still made in Washington at the time. It was the same beer people here drank summer and winter, with occasional forays into Pabst, Hamm's, Rainier and the ilk.
Oh, how things have changed! Today's Alaska beer fancier has access to hundreds of craft brews in a plethora of styles from all around the world, and there's no shortage of grog specifically aimed at yuletide indulgence -- products with names like Mad Elf and Sled Wrecker.
Winter beers tend toward excess; they're heartier, hoppier, darker. Christmas beers typically revel in ingredients that could come out of a cake shop, like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, nectarine peels and orange zest. The flavor would have gagged the Oly drinkers of yore, who rejected any beer whose color differed from a pane of glass. But modern taste has evolved to relish the Mardi Gras commotion of complex and weighty ales, or at least tolerate it once a year.
Traditional Christmas beer is among the most potent made. Samichlaus, an Austrian product bottled on St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6), was long held to be the strongest lager in the world. It's since been supplanted by brewers striving to attain the grail of a beer with the proof of Everclear, but even now Esprit de Noel, an Italian creation with 40 percent alcohol by volume, makes it onto the lists of 10 strongest beers.
More good news is the wealth of companies that brew really good beer right here. We recently hit some Anchorage liquor stores and asked the experts therein to direct us to Alaska beers with some kind of seasonal connection. For purposes of space, storage and shipping, we did not include beers that are only available in kegs, growlers or on draught.
Here's what we came up with, all in bottles unless otherwise noted. Alcohol by volume, or ABV, is given as a percentage. Random comments from Dispatch News tasters follow each listing. Keep in mind that tastes may vary. One drinker's ambrosia is another drinker's swill.
SMOKED PORTER 2015, Alaskan Brewing Co., Juneau, ABV 6.5, $9.99 for 22 oz.
We begin this survey with the prize-winning granddaddy of Alaska seasonals. Alaskan Brewing smokes their malt with the same alder that gives smoked salmon such distinction. It's produced every year in a limited edition, and every year is different because of how the alder grows. The result is a truly vintage beer, like wine, with the year being part of the label. And it stores well. Company employees claim to have a few 1993 bottles still in the locker. Co-founder Geoff Larson has said, "As far as we know, Alaskan Smoked Porter has no real end to its shelf life."
"Hearty. The smoke flavor is not objectionable but intriguing."
"A carefully crafted smoke that's not overwhelming, but also not very enjoyable."
NO. 5 BOXCAR PORTER, Arkose Brewery, Palmer, ABV 5.3, $4.99 for 22 oz.
Porters are a popular template for Christmas beers. They're a style of dark, bitter ale with what's called a chocolate flavor coming from well-toasted malt. No. 5, named for the antique locomotive at the Palmer train station, uses three different hops but falls on the lighter side of the porter spectrum with regard to alcohol content.
"Not enough depth"
"Strong ash taste but less flavor that one expects from a dark porter."
"Very empty. Almost little to no flavor."
SITKA SPRUCE TIP ALE, Baranof Island Brewing Co., Sitka, ABV 6.9, $8 for 22 oz.
Until the Middle Ages, ale didn't include hops. It was flavored with any of several spices at hand, including spruce tips where available. Captain Cook is said to have made beer with spruce when he sailed Alaska waters in 1778. Baranof used spruce to flavor the grog of the Sitka colony. Home brewers still toss in a bit of spruce extract for the zing. The present-day Sitka brewers keep up the tradition, harvesting lush Southeast tips with appropriately festive results. "Nose starts out incredibly sweet," writes a contributor to the Beer Advocate website, "like gummi bears."
"Lively. The spruce flavor is fresh and zesty."
"Too bitter for my taste buds. I didn't like the long aftertaste."
"Pretty good spruce tip."
SLOW DOWN BROWN SPICED ALE, Denali Brewing Co., Talkeetna, ABV 6.1, $9.99 for the 6-pack (cans)
Denali once made a specialty oaked wassail with cranberries and green apples called Snow Queen. It's no longer available, but the less pretentious Slow Down fills the niche. Described as a nut brown ale, its flavorings include cumin, cayenne and fenugreek, stuff you'd expect in curries.
"Cinnamon notes would be a perfect chaser for eggnog, or for pairing with pumpkin pie."
"The gum drop spices are obvious. A well-balanced Christmas beer in a can!"
"Good taste. Has quite a lot of spice to it."
TERMINATION DUST BELGIAN BARLEY WINE, Midnight Sun Brewing Co., Anchorage, ABV 13, $14.99 for 22 oz.
Take the title "termination" seriously as this product had the highest alcohol content of anything we nipped. Despite the word "wine," this is a style of remarkably strong beer. Barley wines vary widely by region, hoppier in America, blander in England. Midnight Sun is a "hybrid" of the dark Belgian style with hints of toffee and caramel. It's said to be brewed for release on the day the first snow hits Flattop Peak.
"Sweetness pleasantly offsets the alcohol."
"Extremely sweet, heavy and chocolaty with a heft like being hit with a 4x4."
"I find this one hard to drink."
NOBILITY ENGLISH BARLEY WINE, King Street Brewing Co., Anchorage, ABV 9, $5.95 for 11 oz.
Aged in whiskey and chardonnay barrels for several months, this English-style barley wine adds notes of oak to the caramel and vanilla flavors of the product, which has a dark honey color.
"Complex with a strong flavor, but oddly sweet with a creamy mouthfeel. Not to be quaffed."
"Too much wheat flavor, too much booze, too much sweet."
SOLSTICE IPA, 49th State Brewing Co., Denali Park, ABV 7, $7.95 for 22 oz.
Indian Pale Ale, or IPA, was not first concocted in India but in England for export to thirsty, sweltering expatriates in the subcontinent. Including it in a list of winter beers may seem counterintuitive, particularly since the 49th State brewery is only open to the public during summer. But sometimes one needs a break from the weightiness of sweet Christmas drink. IPA provides a tonic in that it's generally bitter. The bottle picked up for this testing was actually brewed in September, so surely they had the Dec. 21 solstice in mind.
"Light, citrusy body, making it a perfect accompaniment to the dark days of winter solstice."
"Subtle yet sharp."
"Very fresh and not over-the-top hoppy"
SUNKEN ISLAND IPA, Kenai River Brewing Co., Soldotna, ABV 6.8, $8.99 for the 6-pack (cans)
Frankly, we included this just for the art, a couple of salmon apparently singing as they lean against a clump of underwater Christmas trees. That's the spirit! But IPA is an acquired taste. The old Oly guys would have agreed with the reviewer on the Ratebeer website who called it "a horrific diacetyl (buttery) bomb. The flavor is so sour and dirty that it instantly provokes a spit/gag reflex." But other tasters on the same site said, "A bit old school, but nice to drink," and "Wow! An awesome English IPA."
"Easy drinking IPA, but nothing special."
"Best palate-cleanser of the bunch. No surprises. Just good clear beer."
"Very drinkable."
WHITEOUT WIT BIER, Anchorage Brewing Co., Anchorage, ABV 6.5, $8.99 for 25 oz.
This wheat beer uses the familiar white bread grain along with barley. It's brewed with peppercorns and lemon peel and aged in large chardonnay barrels made of French oak. Yet it's the opposite of most of the strongly flavored and spicy beers on this list. Hardly tart at all, but clean and clear. Anchorage Brewing uses a kind of yeast found on fruit, brettaniomyces ("British fungus"), popular with Belgian brewers.
"A nice sour flavor and very pale."
"Of all the beers I tried, this one seemed closest to liquid Christmas."
"Loved this. It was so bright and lemony nice."
"Fantastic. Slightly sour but not too sour to turn people off who aren't used to that kind of flavor. This was my favorite by far. Really has a lot going on."
SPICED CREAM ALE, Kassik's Brewery, Kenai, ABV 5, $5.50 for 22 oz.
The "cream" part stems from how this style is usually cold-conditioned after its primary fermentation, like a lager. Some actually use both top-fermenting ale yeast and bottom-fermenting lager yeast. The result is less of a fruity taste, sometimes further lightened with corn or rice.
"Subtle and less festive than one might want in a Christmas beer."
"Ick."
"OK."
COHOHO IMPERIAL IPA, Midnight Sun Brewing Co., Anchorage, ABV 8, $7.99 for 22 oz.
Imperials are a fairly recent American invention, high in hops, high in alcohol, almost approaching barley wine strength but without the strong malt flavor. A winter version of Midnight Sun's Sockeye Red, CoHoHo was originally cooked up for Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse. It's made with brown sugar, honey and juniper berries for a truly boisterous, festive blend.
"Lively. Nothing subtle. Celebratory spruce tang."
"Excellent example of an Imperial IPA, with the nice aftertaste surprise of the juniper."
"Doesn't seem very well balanced."
SCHEHEREZADE, Celestial Meads, Anchorage, ABV 12, $26 for 25 oz.
As we began our list with the award-winning smoked porter, it seems appropriate to end it with another gold medal winner, even if it isn't a true beer. But it's highly suitable for an end-of-meal dessert beverage. Mead is the near ancestor of beer, made without grain in a balancing act involving pounds of honey spiked with acidic fruit. It takes much longer to ferment to a finish and takes a lot more TLC than plain beer. Celestial Meads can rightly brag that it makes some of the best in the world, maybe the best. Scheherezade is a semisweet strain, with pomegranates, eucalyptus, sour cherries and the plums of your Christmas dreams in the mix.
"Nicely spiced like a festive holiday mead should be. If you like that sort of thing, which I now realize I don't."
"Does anyone like mead?"
"I like mead. Mmm. Are those angels singing?"
Two more to consider:
SON SOUHAIT BELGIAN HYBRID TRIPEL, Broken Tooth Brewing, Anchorage, ABV 8.9, $13.99 for 25 oz.
A limited-batch product from the Bear Tooth group, "Her Wish," to give the English translation of the title, uses pinot grigio grapes and melony Australian hops. The tripel style was concocted by Belgian monks in the 1950s and involves up to three times as much malt as goes into standard brew and Belgian candy sugar, which creates a light body despite the skull-splitting strength.
"Very drinkable for a Trippel. Has a good smell/taste."
BEN'S BREW ROOT BEER, Baranof Island Brewing Co., Sitka, ABV 0, $4.99 for 22 oz.
This is a very smooth, somewhat mild Alaska product that the brewers (Ben's parents, as it turns out) say is "great for kids, teetotalers and people on antibiotics."
"This would make a great ice cream float."
Our list in no way exhausts the possibilities. The current edition of Northwest Brewing News lists 22 Alaska breweries and our northern zymurgists keep coming up with new ideas.
We say try them all. There may only be 12 days of Christmas, but there are more than 90 days of winter before us.