St. Bernardus Christmas Ale

Brewed by St. Bernard Brouwerij
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Watou, Belgium

Fort George BrewPub has a keg of this wonderful beer. They served it with the main course at their Collaboration Dinner featuring Belgian beers and seafood courses created by guest chefs. The executive chef for the local school district food service created a ling cod stuffed with fresh razor clams served with sauteed chard and croquette potatoes. The Christmas Ale balance well with this main course. This is a really special malty, high gravity beer that matched well with the rich razor clams.

Pours beautifully with a reddish mahoghany color and a large tan head that sticks forever with nice lacing. Can it look better? Aroma begins with cinnemon, apricot, cloves and follows up as the beer warms with toffee, cocoa, and a little bit of berry. Tastes slightly drier than expected with some cocoa and toffee, toast, chocolate, lots of pear and apricot, mild cinnemon spice and small amount of heat. FInishes, spicy and warming with the taste of almonds and christmas bread on the throat. Medium to full bodied, highly carbonated, and very creamy. Well made for sure, just not as awesome as the Abt 12.

750 ml bottle **Summary** - I had high hopes for this after previous experiences with St Bernardus. In the end it was disappointing; I would love to pick up one to age to see if that improves things down the road. ** Aroma / Appearance** - A billowing head rushes down to fill the glass. After a few minutes it sinks to a chestnut brown color with clear lacing. Chocolate, malt, bready, and a little boozy it is sweet and dense. **Flavor / Palate** - Carbonated and chocolately the experience was different than I expected. Warm and mellow it comes across as a little stronger than it should be in my opinion. For the volume it should have more flavor. It is above average but somehow just lacking that something special.

Bomber. Pours a dark brown with dark ruby streaks. Aroma is malt, candi sugar, cinnamon, and dark fruit - plum, fig, cherry). Flavor is thick and complex with dark fruit up front with malt, candi sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and Belgian yeast detectable as well. The alcohol burn is very slight, not as much as you would think for a beer this strong. I loved it, another masterpiece from these guys.

Poured dark brown with a maroon/purple hue. Non-existant head. Complex aroma of malts, figs, a little alcohol, but mostly cherries. Flavor is mostly dominated by the cherries. Palate has a nice long finish, but seemed a bit thick. Overall, a pretty nice Christmas beer!

Bottle. Pours an opaque brown with plenty of yeast sediment, and a thick, bubbly head. Aroma of sour yeast and sweet malts. The taste is fairly complex, with sweet caramely malts and flavors of dark fruits, particularly cherries. The yeast is somewhat more sour than is typical. Very nice.

2008 corked bottle. Dark brown color. Malt, cinnamon and cardemom in the aroma. Malty sweetish, alcoholic, heavily spiced flavor with cinnamon and cardemom. Some caramel in the background. Disappointing, though absolutely a well made beer.

bottle thanks to swalden28. poured a brownish color with a great beige head. aroma of fruits, malt, and alcohol. flavor had alcohol spice, caramel malt, and some dark fruits. one of the better winter seasonal brews i have had this year.