Christmas

This beer began as an attempt to brew something with a properly reddish hue for the holidays—but it serves just as well as an exploration of earthy rye and malty depth with a firm, spicy bitterness.

From the Viking Age to the first Christmases until today, the ancient Yule customs demand the best food and beer you can provide—and it’s not all for the living. So, what did they brew and pour for the spirits and the dead?

Festivities are winding down, but there’s a surplus of cookies winking at the motley collection of beers in your fridge. Our best advice: Look for comparable intensities of flavor (difficult), and don’t overdo it (impossible). Specific recommendations follow.

What the Noël? Hot fruit beers for the holidays? It’s not as weird as it sounds. As the days get cold, Annie Johnson explains how to keep warm by getting punchy.

Beernog is more than a way to lighten up a heavy traditional drink. It’s a hook that can lure more people into the indulgent joy of fresh eggnog—and variations abound.

To warm the cockles of our hearts with beery libations—hot or cool, spiced or not, with or without an extra shot of Christmas spirits—Randy Mosher is here with a red-hot poker and lines of verse.

A stronger and darker Anchor Christmas Ale is here to help us try to forget about 2020. Here, Anchor’s brewmaster explains the thinking behind this year’s recipe and label.

Once upon a time, beer led us through a cycle from winter warmers to spring ales to fruit beers before greeting us with Oktoberfest and, of course, pumpkin beers. Seasonal offerings kept beer moving. Times have changed.