Sorry this is coming so late in the month! I have five beers slated for the holiday season and I'm anticipating getting through them all by the big day itself. 

Is your tree trimmed? Are your lights up? Gifts secured and wrapped? Mine, neither (well, okay, our tree is trimmed and lights are up. The gifts are another story). December's hectic. Take a moment, grab a cold one, and snuggle up for the first Christmas season post of 2024: State of Brewing's Holiday Ale.

It's now, officially, the holiday season here on the blog, folks. December 1st has finally rolled into town, bringing with it chilly weather, yuletide cheer, and dark evenings.

I (might, depending on illnesses on the home front) have a big Chirstmassy weekend lined up: hanging lights, getting and trimming the tree, piecing together a Christmas list, a maybe a little more present shopping. 

Despite all that, I'm making time tonight to do up the first Christmas beer post of 2023. I have a small smattering of holiday brews to discuss (Anchor went under, so their Christmas Ale will, for the first year since I started blogging, not be featured as there isn't one), so we might as well get started now! To start the season off (hopefully!) right, we're settling down with some Vince Guaraldi Trio and West Side's Holiday Ale.

Today's beer is another special treat for me--it's the second of two Christmas beers I wasn't sure I'd be able to track down. See, New Holland announced their third Brewer's Best series beer in early November. That beer is Holiday Ale. While you could preorder it for local pickup, there was no mention of any distribution.

Two weeks ago, after failing to find the ale at a local bottleshop, I hopped on the brewery's beer locator and saw that the beer was nonexistent in my neck of the woods. I shrugged and cut my losses--I figured I had enough beers for the blog's holiday season.

All this to say that I was shocked when I found the beer at that exact same bottleshop last Friday. I grabbed a four-pack and headed directly for the checkout with it. Now, four days later, I'm ready to crack into a can. Here we go: New Holland's Holiday Ale.

Once again, it's that magical time of the summer. Who cares if it's 90-something degrees on the opposite side of my window air conditioning unit? Not me! By sitting here with the air cranked and Christmas music flowing through my earbuds, I can (almost) convince myself that it isn't late July. With just a hint bit of holiday cheer, I can practically envision sugarplums dancing and gifts beneath the tree. All I need is a little bit of something else. But what?


Beer! Christmas beer, in particular. This is where Revolution Brewing's Fistmas Ale comes into the picture. I've never had it before so this is a completely blind review. The can I'm about to crack open has been sitting in my pantry, aging, since mid-May when I found it marked down at my local beer shop (it was out of season). Will Fistmas have me singing carols all night (and, by extension, annoying the snot out of my roommates)?