Christmas time, mistletoe and wine

Dec 29, 2012 3 Replies

Roll on January 1st!



Why do brewers all kowtow to marketing and role conditioning to give us Rudolph's This, Santa's That, copious beers with 'Elf' in their title, and bleedin' robins and reindeer everywhere.



Why are we suddenly expected to have our beer laced with coriander and cinnamon? Why do beers have to be dark and sweet? We don't all gather round blazing fires, ruddy faced and somewhat Pickwickian, plunging pokers into our pewter tankards of foaming ale.



Christmas is a dark time for beer, in more than one sense.



Oh to return to normality!


It's an attempt by brewers to sell beer at pub prices in supermarkets by placing a seasonal label on the bottle.

Some publicans have been told that we are all going to appreciate sweet, malty high gravity beers at this time of year - and then wonder why they are not selling.

This is the first time in around 10 years that santa didn't bring me an expensive gift pack of standard *#@! from one the big brewers. Santa's little helpers believe that all beer tastes the same :(

It sells, and that means money in the coffers to tide people through the cash poor period of January/February

The good part is that porter and stout seem to be easier to find at this time of year.

Appropriate to plug the National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester on

23-26th January
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and it's not all dark and sweet. I've noticed the word Citra in the beer list below:

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