Another holiday season, another run of Anchor's historic Christmas Ale. I haven't missed a year since I fell into this beer rabbit hole and I'm pleased to add 2021 to my résumé.

I look forward to each annual release of the beer, but the stuff's largely been hit or miss for me. '17, '18, and '19 were all killer ales, but I just couldn't get behind last year's for some reason (I think I might have had a bad bottle, because a lot of people didn't have my particular issues with it). Let's see how '21's drinking.

Last year, for New Year's, a buddy of mine came to visit. I hadn't seen him since he moved out west but, since he was in-state visiting his family, he asked if he could swing down to Cincinnati. "Hell yeah!" I said.

I took him on a short brewery tour of the area--some of the more popular spots. One of those spots was Braxton Labs (it was the first time I'd ever been), where they had Claus gift sets left over from its release. I bought one with the intention of doing a post about it this holiday season. I thought aging it for a year would be fun.

Shortly after making my purchase, however, I realized that I'd have nothing to compare it against after its year of aging. Luckily for me, Braxton released Claus gift sets again this year. I preordered mine online and picked it up from Braxton's Covington, KY taproom when it dropped. Problem solved.


I'm incredibly excited today, for my Christmas Eve 2018 post, to break this year's Claus to see how it is before finding out how well last year's held up. And, knowing Braxton, I think both discoveries will be positive ones.

I've been putting this off for a little bit. Not because I didn't want to write it, oh no. My fridge, apart from the brews I've purchased for blogging purposes, is full of awful beer (Natty Light). So, I've been hankering to get something good down my gullet, and, man, does Winter Solstice seem promising.


Nope, I've been putting this post off because this week was largely unseasonably warm in Cincinnati. I know that some of the country is still dealing with the fallout of Snowmageddon 2016. That's cool. While they were doing so, I was with struggling to find my warmer weather clothes (it was in the 60s a few days ago. It's February).

Seeing as how this is a winter ale, it felt wrong to try it under those warmer circumstances. However, now it's back to being cold as all-get-out, so I figure I might as well crack the can and discuss what I find.