7 Days of Christmas Beers – Goose Island ‘Christmas Ale’

Colin Joliat Staff Writer

As a resident of Chicago, I find myself consuming more Goose Island beers than your average drinker, so it seemed only fitting that I include their “Christmas Ale” in Guyism’s 7 Days of Christmas Beer collection.

Goose Island Christmas Ale 239x214 7 Days of Christmas Beers – Goose Island Christmas AleBecause Goose Island was growing their sales market so quickly in 2010, they actually had to take a year off from their award winning Christmas beer. They simply didn’t have the capacity to continue producing it. As many are aware though, Goose has since been sold to the Anheuser-Busch horses, so that’s no longer an issue.

This brown ale is probably the most subtle of the beers I’ve tried so far this week. The malt is there, but the spices aren’t nearly as prominent, ans the hops are almost non-existent. If not for the slight bitterness, I might have missed them all together. Much like the Great Lake’s Christmas Ale though, the subtlety works well. The flavors all blend together without any one standing out against the rest.

Overall, it’s full bodied, smooth, and very good. I don’t like it quite as much as past years, but that’s stiff competition considering that it has won multiple gold medals at the World Beer Championships. Plus, unless you’ve been cellaring a bottle for a few years, this will have to suffice. Goose Island advertisies that “Christmas Ale” will develop in the bottle for 5 years, so it might be worth it to tuck one away if you have a stable living environment. A couple years down the road you can sit back and compare the new brew with the vintage.

ABV: 6.2%, IBUs unknown. BeerAdvocate tallies a B+ and RateBeer gives it a 93. Reviewer of the day:

There is a fruit cake texture which is nice , caramel and citrusy hops but call me dumb but i think Christmas beers should taste like Christmas . Put some cinamon in this for God’s sakes.

Day 1: Great Lakes Brewing – Christmas Ale

Day 2: Anchor Brewing – Our Special Ale 2011

Day 3: Three Floyd’s – Alpha Klaus

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