We don’t do Christmas ales properly in this country!

Source - Harvey & Son Ltd

We don’t do Christmas ales properly in this country. I was prompted to write this piece, after reading a post that appeared on my phone, early on Christmas morning. The post came courtesy of Irish blogger, The Beer Nut who, after spending several Christmases in England, had developed a bit of a hankering for them.

He qualified that last statement by saying that they weren’t especially good, but it was more the experience than anything else. After his stays in England, he was somewhat surprised to find four Christmas Ales on sale, at his local JDW, back in Ireland.

A review then followed which highlighted that only one of these ales really stood out - Donner & Blitzed, a dark ale, from Milestone in Lincolnshire. I replied along the lines that there is something about the majority of UK-brewed Christmas ales, which invariably disappoints, as very few of them are brewed to a decent strength. I added the comment that no self-respecting Christmas ale should look like yet another bog-standard, pale ale.

In what seems like a case of history repeating itself, I wrote a similar post as far back as 2012, lamenting the lack of a decent Christmas ale, here in the UK, asking why can’t we turn out anything decent for the festive season? I went on to say that more often than not, many Christmas Ales turn out to be bog  standard, uninspiring, malt-led, brownish bitters in the 4.0 – 5.0% strength bracket. Far too many of today's festive offerings are pale in colour (sometimes even golden!), low in strength and low on taste. The only thing Christmassy about them is the name on the pump clip, and all too often that is a silly pun or spoonerism with a dubious Christmas connection.

On that last point, there have been some quite excruciating names for Christmas ales over the years, with appalling puns, double entendres, unashamedly sexist themes and even some out and out smut. If you don’t believe me, then check out the Pump Clip Parade website for details of some of the worse ones, but being serious for a moment, beers brewed to commemorate the festive season really do deserve better than a rash of cringe-worthy and rather juvenile, school-boy jokes.

So, what do I look for in a Christmas beer? Well, a decent strength to start with; ideally something around 6.0% and certainly nothing below 5.0%! I also like my Christmas ale to be dark in colour (preferably darker than ruby), full-bodied and well-hopped.

Other countries manage to deliver on this front, in particular Belgium with many breweries putting out seasonal stunners, whilst over in Bavaria many brewers produce strong, seasonal Weihnachtsbier, named after "Weihnachten" the German word for Christmas. These normally run in at anywhere between 6 & 8% abv, not quite as strong as the Belgian offerings, many of which get into double figures, but they are all good, full-bodied beers designed to keep out the cold.

Perhaps that’s the problem here in the UK, as we don’t get really cold winters, or if we do then the cold snap normally doesn’t last that long. Consequently, few beers come near the sorts of strengths common on the Continent, although Harvey’s Christmas Ale hits the spot for me at 7.5%.

It’s a perfectly balanced strong dark bitter-sweet ale, satisfying and warming, but obviously a beer to be treated with respect but, as I alluded to earlier, it’s rare to find a beer this strong in Britain, especially on draught. I have also in the past, enjoyed Hook Norton's Twelve Days, another fine dark ale, not as strong as Harvey's, but still a welcome sight on a pub bar.  Old Dairy Snow Top, is another beer well worth looking out for, and whilst this dark and warming 6.0% abv Winter Ale, is not exclusively brewed for the Christmas period, it is still much appreciated at this time of year.

Whilst researching my original article, I came across a specially commissioned article on Christmas Ales, written for pub chain Wetherspoon’s house magazine by respected veteran, beer writer Jeff Evans. who at the time was the author of CAMRA's Good Bottled Beer Guide. The article began with a look back to those times, as little as 35 years or so ago, when Christmas was the only time of the year one could expect to see something different on the bar apart from a brewer's mild, bitter, and possibly best bitter. 

He contrasted this with the situation at the time of writing, when there is a whole plethora of so-called Christmas Ales weighing down the nation's bars.  Jeff picked out a few of his favourites, and whilst he did make mention of the silly Christmas-themed puns, he was conscious that he was writing a commissioned article for JDW, so didn’t come down too hard on the names, or the weak strength, of some of the beers,

I can certainly remember when the situation that Jeff harks back to; a time when Christmas Ales really were something special, rather than just a slightly reddish coloured best bitter with a silly name and equally silly pump clip. Whilst I obviously welcome the far greater availability of seasonal ales today, I do feel that the whole Christmas thing has been dumbed down and lost its meaning.

I’d like to end on that note, and square the circle, so to speak, as I’ve just cracked open a bottle of Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale. The Faversham-based brewery produce a Christmas ale every year and have been doing so for as long as I can remember. I was in the VI^th form when I first came across the beer, and then, like now, it was only available in bottled form.

A friend of mine told me about it, and I recall us both trying a bottle in the Royal Oak, at Mersham, to the east of Ashford. I was intrigued at the time, that a brewery would produce a beer especially for Christmas, and this more than anything, was what persuaded me to try it.

I can’t remember what the beer tasted like, or how strong it was. It might seem incredible, but back in the early 1970’s, there was no requirement to declare the ABV or Original Gravity of any beers. Consumers were left totally in the dark as to how strong, or indeed weak, a beer might be. Brewers often used this to their advantage, by giving the impression that a particular beer was stronger than it actually was. They also used this lack of visibility to reduce the strength of their beers, without informing consumers, or passing on the cost savings generated by the reduction.

I said that I couldn’t recall the strength, but I do remember being surprised that the beer was relatively pale in colour. Despite knowing virtually nothing about beer at the time, I at least expected that a strong beer would be dark in colour. I do remember though, the distinctive label on the half pint bottles that the beer came in, as it featured a group of musicians, wrapped up warm against the cold, and holding a lantern aloft, as if the guide the way.

Fast forward nearly 50 years, and I have a 500ml bottle of Shepherd Neame’s current Christmas Ale in front of me. Brewed to an abv of 7.0%, the beer is amber in colour, and is packed full of a blend of crystallised fruit aromas, set against a background of spicy hops. Like I said, things have turned full circle, as far as Shepherd Neame’s Christmas Ale is concerned, and it’s good to come back to the place that I started my infatuation with Christmas Ale, almost a half century ago.