mel’s winter brews, pt. 2: jingle beers!

I’ve had a bottle of the famous Austrian wintertime bier, Samichlaus, in my fridge for about a month. Ernie at Vinatero stocks it, and that’s where I got mine. A little research (by research here, I mean looking at the label on the bottle and Beeradvocate.com) reveals that Samichlaus is brewed in Hürlimann, Austria. (Hmm…sounds an awful like like “Girly-man.” I bet Arnold the Austrian is really from Girlyman…but I digress.) It’s brewed only once a year, on December 6. Today happens to be December 6, so what better way to ring in the season of Santa by finally cracking open that bottle. So I did. Dayum. Right way, this thing smelled like a meal. A synchronicity of sweet, spicy, and robust aromas poured out of this bottle. Mmm. Reminded me of a lot of those Belgian beers I’m so fond of. I was gettin’ all excited. Then I poured it in my favorite glass and noticed, Hmm, no creamy fluffy head. Not like the Belgians at all! But the color is gorgeous. Deep caramel and amber tones. And this beer has legs! Kinda like wine. The stumpy little legs on this beer nevertheless intrigued me, so I finally had a sip. Whoa! This beer must be sipped, I’m finding out. It reminds me of some of those heavy, almost syrupy-sweet-on-the- verge-of-bitter Belgian ales, or even like a port wine or an aged old-vine zinfandel. If you like sipping on a cognac or brandy, this might also be your bier. This Samichlaus has been aged 10 months and has been in the bottle for an additional 2 years (mine was bottled in 2006), and at a whopping 14% alcohol, does a heckuva job warming you up. I appreciate the ’special-ness’ of this beer and I could see myself enjoying one of these maybe every other year. Maybe once every leap-year…

(stay tuned for pt. 3. when i recover from drinkin this Samichlaus, i’ll hit up the Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome Ale and Full Sail’s winter offering, the Wassail Ale.)