Possibly my favorite kind of beer for summer months is a spruce tip IPA. Not sours nor lagers (although I drink both styles during the summer, too!), but this very specific adjunct IPA.

It's been more than a month since I've talked about MadTree. That's a bit of time for me; a spell I'll end today.

For years, I've yearned for a MadTree Christmas beer. Sure, they put out Thundersnow annually, which is a killer winter warmer that has the spices one might associate with a Christmas beer. They also did Luna Lux, a great white IPA. Yet, neither of these really scratched that Christmas itch for me. Chalk it up to the lack of Christmassy marketing for each brew. 

This year, though, MadTree's finally done it. They've put out an honest to goodness Christmas beer. This is exactly what I've been waiting for from them, and something I'm excited to crack into. Here it is: Holly Days.

You know what I've been getting into recently? IPAs. No, I'm serious! I recently completed my yearly playthrough of Link's Awakening and selected a Rye IPA to be my go-to playthrough beer. Okay, you're right. I didn't choose it merely because it was an IPA. I chose it because it had a flying whale on the can (the ultimate goal of Link's Awakening is to--spoilers--wake up a flying whale, so the can fit the game).

Regardless of my motives for drinking that beer, I enjoyed it. Especially that last can. I found myself identifying flavors other than hops. I looked at it not as a bitter beer, but as something more akin to a winter warmer--something complex with individual nuances to be unearthed.

I decided I'd better take my newfound appreciation for this adored style and apply it to another brew before I lose it (hey, it's happened before. Last summer, to be precise). That brew is Jackie O's New Growth, a spruce tip-infused IPA that, shocker, I also nabbed because of the can, which showcases a cool Godzilla-esque monster destroying an evergreen forest.