Since I missed July 25th (Michelle and I were in the hospital after the early birth of our second kid), let's get to that beer now. Merry Christmas in August! I've never done Christmas in August before and don't anticipate from deviating from July in the future; let's enjoy this as a fun little one-off thing.

Today we're breaking into a bottle I nabbed from store shelves in January, just before it disappeared. It's De Dolle Brouwers' Stille Nacht. That's right, a heavy Belgian Christmas ale. Luckily, it's a little cooler today than it was a month ago, so I'm more prone to drink a beer of this caliber.

Before we dive into the ale, however, I think a little bit of housekeeping is in order. I've been away from the blog since February. Purrl will remain the face of the blog, even though she's gone, because she was part of this whole thing with me. Don't go looking for my profile image to change anytime soon! 

Aside from that, I'm scaling back. I have a slate of beers for September (Oktoberfest season) and October (Halloween). After that, we're looking at two or three posts for November's Maple Month. I'm sure I'll get a small handful up in December, too. When we roll into 2026, you can expect a post a month (with maybe a gap here and there) until September comes around again. I'm still trying to work out doing the blog without Purrl and, with the second kid here now, I have infinitely less time to devote to this space than I had when I started this whole thing.

Now that we're through with that, let's turn our attention to De Dolle Brouwers. The company, headquartered in Esen, in Belgium's West Flanders, began when a small cycling club decided to shift their attention to beer. De Dolle Brouwers' first beer released in 1980, and the brewery's expanded since, although its stayed in the historic 1830s brewing facility it calls home.

Stille Nacht is a traditional Belgian Christmas Ale, clocking in at a solid 12% ABV. The brewery's done a bit of its own thing by adding some white candy sugar into the brew kettle, seemingly giving it a little bit more of a boozy kick.

The bouquet on my bottle is phenomenal. I'm finding apple first, followed by grape, orange, brown sugar, and molasses. There's a bit of farmhouse-like funk layered beneath everything and it's rounded out by a bit of a boozy burn. Overall, I think it's a nose that screams "Holiday Season!" without the need for the spices I tend to enjoy in Christmas beers. Our newest kitten, Melba, gave my bottle a quick two whiffs before scurrying away. I'm still getting her up to snuff in the beer review game.

The flavor here is as astounding as the aroma. Stille Nacht retains that apple quality I noted immediately on the nose. The orange and grape are here, too. It has good and funky Belgian yeastiness, including notes of coriander and banana. Really, this is an excellent fruity beer that has a good deal of alcohol warmth in the finish, which mingles with the yeast and the grounding, earthy hops, keeping the ale from becoming cloyingly sweet.

The beer's mouthfeel is sharp. It's smooth at first, almost creamy, before the biting carbonation settles in. This drinks like the best kind of brown ale. It doesn't quite match with what I'd expect from the style or ABV, but I'm fine with that. It's a great drinker on a sunny, late-August afternoon.

I'm sitting here listening to Christmas music on my porch. The wind's gently blowing. It doesn't feel like late-December in the slightest but, for this precise moment, I'm wrapped up in that warm holiday feeling. I can turn off the world and its troubles for a minute or two and just enjoy my music and the beer. That's something I didn't know I needed today.

I've never understood Europe's fascination with traditional Belgian Christmas beers. I've always (as alluded to in this post) preferred the spicier American variety. Something like 12 Dogs of Christmas is so perfectly able to replicate everything about Christmas, just fermented and bottled. But, with De Dolle Brouwers' Stille Nacht, I finally get it. Belgian beer and Christmas has, at last, just today, finally clicked for me. This is a 10/10 ale, and one I'll be looking out for this holiday season. You should keep it on your radar, too.