It's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 2

Here is another installment of my series on the new Christmas/winter beers I am trying this holiday season. A new feature in these posts will be my little traveling Santa who will appear, facing the camera, with all the Christmas beers. He will also appear to be admiring the bottle or glass of any beer that is a winter seasonal, but not officially Christmas related.

During December, I usually try to take Fridays off from work to give me an extra day of trying new beers each week since I don't make a habit of trying new beers on days that I have worked and have to work the following day. With that explained, I tried Anchor Our Special Ale 2009, Victory Yakima Twilight, Ommegang Adoration Special Winter Ale and Gritty McDuff's Christmas Ale between December 3 and December 6.

Anchor Our Special Ale, brewed in San Francisco, is thought to be

the first truly American craft Christmas beer. It has been brewed since 1975. Each year the recipe changes a bit and the brewery never reveals any of the recipes. Each year may be different but they are all spiced with seasonal tasting spices. With every edition of the beer there is also a new label depicting a different tree. I may or may not have tried this beer years ago, but it was long before I started taking notes and rating every beer I try. So I'll think of this as my introduction to this classic holiday beer. This beer has tons of holiday spices. It just tastes like Christmas, and smells that way too. It's definitely Christmasy, but I think they could have eased up on the spices a bit. While drinking it I felt like I had poured dried spices into my mouth and tried to wash them down with a great craft beer. As it warmed that sensation decreased a little, but I still think it would be better with a little less spice. The Grey Lodge Pub is scheduled to host "An Anchor Christmas Carol," where three years of Anchor Our Special Ale will be on tap (2009, 2008 and 2007) on Friday December 18 from 6-9 p.m. It should be an interesting night.

Victory Yakima Twilight isn't really marketed heavily as a winter beer, but it is only available from November to January so I think it fits the bill. RateBeer.com lists the beer as an American Strong Ale, but I choose to call it a black or dark India Pale Ale (IPA). These dark beers that are hopped like IPAs are becoming more and more popular and will hopefully soon have a category all their own. Prior to this year the only one I can recall having tried was Dogfish Head India Brown Ale, but this year I must have tried at least five that could be put in the category. This one, brewed in Downingtown, PA, is very nice. It was malty and hoppy and the two flavors were well balanced. I'm a bit confused by the whole concept of umami, the fifth taste that scientists found we have (sweet, salty, sour and bitter being the others), but I think this beer has it. And when you understand that the Japanese describe umami as deliciousness, you will know that I am paying this beer a compliment. At 8.7% ABV it also makes for a wonderful winter warmer.

I tried Ommegang Adoration this weekend because I figured with the feast

of The Immaculate Conception on December 8 it was a nice way to remember the religious side of the season. I was told at a winter beer festival that this was based on Scaldis Noel a famous Christmas beer from Belgium, which I tried last year. If it is, the Adoration is huge improvement. I'm sure the Scaldis tastes nearly as good in Belgium, but the Adoration, having been brewed in Cooperstown, NY, didn't have to cross an ocean to get to me. In other words, it's super fresh. Adoration is brewed with coriander, cardamom, mace, grains of paradise and sweet orange peel; and it tasted a bit like Christmas. It was very Belgian and was spiced perfectly. The spices weren't overdone. This big beer, weighing in at 10% ABV also hid the alcohol very well.

On December 6, I decided I needed to have a beer with jolly, old St. Nick on the label since it was the Feast of St. Nicholas. I went with Gritty McDuff's Christmas Ale. For not being spiced at all, this beer was fairly Christmasy. It is a rather malty beer with notes of toasted and nutty malts with just a hint of chocolate. The more I think about it, the more I think my reason for thinking it was Christmasy is because it reminds me of the chocolate chip cookies my mother makes this time of year. Don't get me wrong, there are also a good amount of hops in this one, but the malt is what really shines. The hops are there more to balance the malt than anything else. At 6.2% ABV this might not warm you up too much, but you sure can knock a few back and not pay for it in the morning.

I picked up a bunch more Christmas and winter beers last night, so there will be plenty of material for several more installments of this series. Hopefully my posts can keep up with the beers. Drink it in.