Top to bottom: Petit Agour, Valdeón

Holiday Ales

STYLE NOTES: Many craft brewers around the world unleash their creative juices at holiday time, producing a flood of uniquely styled Christmas ales. Typically strong and richly malty, and often smelling of gingerbread spices and citrus peel, these heady brews seem intended to match the season’s party spirit. They hark back to the Belgian tradition of thanking brewery patrons at year’s end with an especially festive creation. Today, Christmas ales are often bottled in large format, an acknowledgment that many are destined for parties or gifts.

Some enthusiasts sock these brews away—if high in alcohol, they may improve with age—but producers intend them for winter enjoyment, preferably shared among friends around a blazing hearth.

Belgian breweries and the American craft brewers inspired by them typically rely on dark roasted malts and baking spices such as clove and coriander to give these beers color and personality. A few are moderate in strength, but most have some extra holiday spirit, and a tally of 9 to 12 percent alcohol is not uncommon. They range from dark amber to chocolate-brown and often have spice-cake, dried-fruit, caramel, licorice, or whiskey aromas and sometimes a touch of barnyard funk. Most are showcases for malt and offer little or no hop fragrance, but exceptions abound. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale is a classic IPA, with a big hop aroma and no spicing whatsoever.

From the more traditional holiday ales, expect moderate to high effervescence, which helps those bakeshop aromas to bloom. High alcohol can give these beers a viscous mouthfeel, although bitterness should balance that sweet impression. Some finish dry, perhaps with cider-vinegar or sour-cherry tartness; others are noticeably sweet, even syrupy. In the United States, Anchor Brewing initiated the Christmas ale custom. Like many breweries, Anchor alters the recipe for its Christmas Ale every season, so each vintage is unique.

Some brewers use the term winter warmer for their high-proof year-end ale. That nomenclature nods to British brewing tradition and the notion of wassail, a spiced, sweetened, and warmed ale to chase away chills or at least help you forget them. Winter warmers tend to be dark, malty, strong, and spiced, but interpretations vary.

BEERS TO TRY: Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale; Delirium Noël; De Struise Tsjeeses; Fantôme de Noël; Gouden Carolus Noël; Grand Teton Brewing Coming Home Holiday Ale; Port Brewing Santa’s Little Helper; Saison Dupont Avec Les Bons Vœux; Scaldis Noël; St. Bernardus Christmas Ale.

CHEESE AFFINITIES: Pair these strong, spicy ales with robust cheeses, especially aged wheels with toasted-nut or caramel flavors that harmonize with the spice. Aged Goudas, with their butterscotch and whiskey aromas, marry well with these beers; so do aged sheep’s milk cheeses that have brown-butter scents. Buttery blue cheeses with nutty notes are a good choice for spiced holiday ales with a sweet edge. In the spirit of holiday indulgence, consider triple-cream cheeses. Their plush, buttery texture complements the viscosity of these high-alcohol beers.

More approachable than the peppery Cabrales, Spain’s more famous blue cheese, Valdeón still makes a strong statement. At its best, this leaf-wrapped cow’s milk blue from northern Spain has a creamy, melting texture and a bold, spicy, but not biting flavor. At the cheese counter, ask for a taste and leave the Valdeón behind if it is overly salty or sharp. Wait for a more buttery, nutty wheel that doesn’t curl your toes. A strong holiday ale has enough intensity and power to handle this substantial, mouth-filling cheese.

Comparable to the popular P’tit Basque but tastier and made on a more artisanal scale, Petit Agour showcases the quality of sheep’s milk from the French Pyrenees. At just under 2 pounds, it resembles a miniature Ossau-Iraty, the prized sheep’s-milk cheese from France’s Basque region. Its roasted-nut and caramel aromas and concentration bring Gruyère to mind, although the underlying flavor is indisputably sheep’s milk. A handsome natural rind protects Petit Agour’s smooth, semifirm, straw-colored interior. Shaving the paste with a cheese plane releases even more of its brown-butter fragrance, a scent that finds a complement in the toffee-like sweetness of many holiday ales.

Its gorgeous amber color and salted-caramel flavor make Saenkanter a near-universal favorite. Like other aged Dutch Goudas, this 28-pound cow’s milk wheel darkens in color and develops a seductive butterscotch aroma with sufficient time in the aging cellar. Saenkanter spends three years in the care of a Dutch affineur, an expert in maturing cheeses. All that patience yields a wheel with a hard, crumbly interior studded with crunchy protein crystals; a caramel fragrance that may remind you of whiskey or oloroso sherry; and a long sweet-and-salty finish. It’s a dessert cheese, certainly, and appealing with a complex, high-alcohol holiday ale that can match its prodigious flavor.

MORE CHEESES TO TRY: Abbaye de Belloc; Berkswell; Bleu d’Auvergne; Bleu des Basques; Blu del Monviso; Brillat-Savarin; Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam; Gouda (aged); Ombra; Parmigiano Reggiano; Roelli Dunbarton Blue; Roomano Pradera; Tomme Brûlée; Wilde Weide Gouda; Winchester Gouda.