It’s time to get the festive beers in…
Bateman’s in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, is a small family-owned brewery but it has built a nationwide reputation for one of the best-selling Christmas beers, Rosey Nosey.
It’s on sale in Morrisons and most major retailers. The 4.7 per cent beer is brewed with pale, crystal and chocolate malts and is hopped with English Challenger and Goldings varieties.
It has a rich aroma and palate of raisins, sultanas, biscuit malt and spicy and peppery hops. It’s a gorgeous beer and will go well with festive fayre.
At this time of year I always recommend a trip to the Chiltern Brewery between Wendover and Aylesbury. It’s one of the country’s oldest small independent breweries, founded in 1980 and now run by the second generation of the Jenkinson family.
They specialise in using only English malts and hops, with their Maris Otter malting barley grown on the 600-acre Waddeson Estate owned by the Rothschilds.
Chiltern has a range of beers that can be bought in bottle and in draught mini-kegs. Of special interest at this time of year are its Christmas Ale (4.6 per cent) and Bodgers Barley Wine (8.4 per cent).
Both beers are bottle conditioned, which means they contain live yeast. As a result of its strength, Bodgers will age and mature for a year or two and I always recommend buying more than one bottle and laying one or two down for future enjoyment.
The Christmas Ale is brewed with pale and crystal malts with roasted barley and hopped with English varieties. Bodgers is amazingly complex, brewed with Maris Otter pale malt and hopped with Challenger, Fuggles and Goldings varieties. It’s rich, aromatic and fruity and will warm the proverbial cockles.
Chiltern Brewery, Nash Lee Road, Terrick HP17 OTQ. The beers can be ordered online from www.chilternbrewery.co.uk.
I have a close attachment to Hornes Brewery, for Ryan Horne is like me a supporter of West Ham United and we drown our sorrows on a regular occasion with his beers.
In keeping with the name of the brewery, Ryan keeps three goats in a paddock. They’re named Herbie, Sooty and Dusty and they thrive on the grain left over from brewing.
They feature on the label of Triple Goat Porter (4.6 per cent). A festive version of the beer has orange peel and cacao nibs added to pale, chocolate and dark roasted malts. The single hop is the American Amarillo variety.
It’s bottle conditioned and is full of delightful flavours of orange, chocolate, biscuit malt and fruity hops. It can be ordered from www.hornes.shop or from the brewery at 19B Station Road, Bow Brickhill MK17 9JU. It’s close to Woburn and can be reached by train.
Greene King has a popular Christmas beer called Rocking Rudolph (4.2 per cent). It’s on sale in Morrisons and other retailers and, even better, can be enjoyed on draught in the brewery’s pubs. It’s malty, fruity and packed with delightful aromas of raisins, sultanas and spicy hops – a fine dessert beer.
Shepherd Neame in Faversham, Kent, has seen a few Christmases – it’s Britain’s oldest brewer, founded in 1698. Its Christmas Ale (7 per cent), comes with hops straight from the local fields: Challenger, Goldings and Target, which balance the biscuit aromas and flavours of pale and crystal malts.
It’s a full-bodied beer bursting with ripe notes of fruity hops alongside the malts. It’s available from www.shepherdneame.co.uk or on draught from their pubs.You don’t need to go to Kent as the brewery has several pubs in London, including Mabel’s, Mabledon Place, WC1, off Euston Road and handy for King’s Cross, St Pancras and Euston stations.
Belgium has a deserved reputation for producing some brilliant festive ales and the following beers from that great brewing country are made available here by Hop Burns & Black:
St Bernardus Christmas Ale (10 per cent) comes from a brewery near Watou. For many years it had an agreement with the neighbouring Westvleteren Trappist brewery that allowed Sint Bernardus to sell beers commercially while the monks made identical beers for their own consumption.
The agreement ended in 1992 and now both Sint Bernardus and Westvleteren sell their beers commercially. The Sint Bernardus Christmas Ale is amazingly rich and warming with the malt notes balanced by hops from the brewery’s own neighbouring fields.
Stille Nacht is one of the most revered Belgian festive beers, brewed by De Dolle Brouwers at Esen near Diksmuide. The “Mad Brewers” is run by Kris Herteleer who specialises in ageing beer in wood, using sherry and cognac casks. Still Nacht is a redoubtable 12 per cent and bursts with rich wood and vinous aromas and flavours, balanced by Belgian hops from Poperinge.
De Ranke is a small brewery in Dottignies in the Hainaut region with beers that are big on flavour and packed with bitter and spicy hops. Pere Noel is 7 per cent and has dark, bitter and fruity flavours.
Hop Burns & Black also makes available beers from the Elusive Brewery in Berkshire. Its Santa’s Stomp (6 per cent) is a Porter with the addition of the flavours of Italian Pannetone due to the use of orange and raisins. It’s warming, fruity and vinous.
All the Belgian beers are bottle conditioned.
