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I started drinking Christmas beers a few years ago when I moved to Switzerland. I love the tradition of brewing a special beer for the Christmas holidays. It gives me a sense of great joy, that warm, intense, and ‘Christmasy’ feeling that only the bubbles of craft beer can give. A good Christmas beer makes a lot of sense in winter and, as soon as you try one, you will quickly change your mind if you still believe that beer is only for summer and should only be consumed when it is warm outside.
Christmas beers are generally very alcoholic and intensely flavouredbecause they are brewed with ingredients that impart a warm character and a complex, rich aroma, such as honey, orange, cardamom, cinnamon, etc. The tradition of Christmas beers is very old in Northern European countries, however craft breweries have revitalised this beer style and delicious Christmas beers can be found at any latitude.
Try your Christmas beer by visiting one of the Christmas markets, or at home with your friends, perhaps eating some traditional Christmas food. I am ready to give you some tips on how to enjoy a good Christmas beer at its best and with delicious food. Cheers!handwerkliches
1. Choose the right atmosphere: Enjoy your Christmas beer at a Christmas market
When I visit a christmas market in Basel, Germany or in Alsace , I look for a special Christmas beer. I find that Christmas markets surround us with a special atmosphere of craftsmanship and peace, which invites me to enjoy a good craft beer. I avoid the big Christmas beer brands because they lack taste and have little to do with the craftsmanship of Christmas markets. I want a craft beer brewed with simple natural ingredients.
In recent years, I have come across Glübeer more often. Very similar to glüwein, Glübier is brewed using warm beer mixed with orange juice, spices and sugar. Glübier is becoming increasingly popular at Christmas markets, and is far removed from a beer. However, it is nicely warm and who knows, you might enjoy it….
Whether at a Christmas market or at home, to enjoy a great Christmas beer, serve it the right way and drink it with great food!
2. Serve your Christmas beer at the best
Choose the right glass Just as you would drink an aged red wine, make sure your Christmas beer is poured into a wide glass that allows the beer to breathe and release its aromas. My Belgian friends told me that at Christmas, several Belgian breweries produce a special glass. It would be nice to be in Belgium and be able to have one! They are very nice to look at, both the glass and the earthenware ones. The logos of the breweries’ traditional brands look very nice on the glass. In my opinion, some of them are real works of art.
However, to make things simpler and more pragmatic than taking a weekend flight to Belgium, my advice is to serve Christmas beer in a large red wine or cognac glass. Gently rinse the glass with water and pour your beer into it.
The temperature of the beer is also crucial. Again, as with an aged red wine, make sure the Christmas beer is served at a cool but not cold temperature. 10-12 degrees Celsius will do. Take the beer out of the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before serving. When I forget to do this and can’t wait to drink my beer, I use a simple trick. I rinse the glass with warm water before pouring my beer.
Of course, if you are visiting a Christmas market and it is quite cold outside, you will have to deal with the temperature outside. And your hands probably won’t help you warm the glass…..
3. Drink your Christmas beer with great cheese.
I love to drink myartisananal beer with craft cheese! The combination of the two stems from the tradition of Benedictine monks who brewed craft beer and cheese. This tradition has been lost over the centuries in many countries, except for a few (e.g. Belgium), and has only recently been revitalised by some craft breweries. I have tried several beers with cheeses of all kinds and I think the pairing is an incredibly delicious experience that all beer lovers, cheese lovers or simply foodies should do.
Light beer goes well with light cheese, while intensely flavoured beer goes well with strong cheese. This is one of my tips that you should keep in mind when drinking a good craft beer with cheese. For this reason, a Christmas beer deserves a strongly flavored cheese. For example, I paired the Fermento Christmas beer Ventuno with some delicious French cheeses. Ventuno is a honey-based beer, quite alcoholic (about 7%), just a little sweet and with beautiful nutty notes combined with the flowery flavour of honey. Such an intense tasty artisanal beer goes very well with strong flavoured and high-fat cheeses.
We combined the Ventuno with the cheeses Brillat-Savarin, Vacherousse, Maroilles (produced by the cheese refiner Antony from Vieux Ferrette), and Allschwil Blanc (produced by Milchhüsli beider Basel, a cheese maker from Allschwil). The experience is unique, and our cheese-making partners have enjoyed it very much!
4. Enjoy your Christmas beer with traditional christmas desserts
During my wine-tasting classes, teachers kept telling us that sweet wines are the best to drink with desserts. I discovered that the same applies to beers: slightly sweeter Christmas beers are perfect to accompanytypical Christmas desserts. In addition, Christmas beers are often spicy and with floral aromatic notes that can be also found in many Christmas cakes and cookies.
For example, the lightly spiced Basler Leckerli and the Swiss seasonal butter cookie Gützli are delicious when accompanied by a Christmas beer. Being a honey, I really like the Engadine Nüsstorte, made with honey, nuts, and a generous dose of butter. As delicious as it is, the Nüsstorte tastes even better when accompanied with a Christmas beer made with honey.
I also love Panettone. Originally from Milan, all Italians, from Sicily to South Tyrol, eat this cake from the end of November to 6 January. It is the traditional Christmas cake made with butter, sultanas, citrus fruits and almonds and I was very surprised to see it in Switzerland practically all year round.
Back to beers, Christmas beers are a pure joy together with panettone. This is due to the spiciness and sweetness of the beer, which goes perfectly with the dried fruit of the panettone. The bubbles and high alcohol content of the beer refresh the palate after every bite of panettone.
Enjoy your Christmas beer with friends at home or at Christmas market. Drink it at its best cool, and enjoy it together with a good artisanal cheese or a dessert from the Christmas tradition.
Share with us your experience with Christmas beers in the comments below. We would like to know what you think about this article.
8 Responses
Indeed, Fermento’s tastefully balanced Christmas beer is extremely delicious with cheese but also with Christmas desserts such as panettone or guetzeli. The flavours of these foods pair very well with the aromatic Fermento Christmas beer!
How nice that you were able to taste and enjoy our Christmas beer! And indeed, both Panettone and Gützli are among the best to drink Christmas beer with!
Christmas beers are indeed very special and enjoyable. I had the chance to have the Ventuno already with fine cheese and Panettone and it was absolutely delicious. This artisanal beer has lovely honey notes that I find very suitable when drinking this beer with artisanal cheese as well as desserts of the Christmas tradition. It is also a great experience to drink a Christmas beer in a Christmas market.
Thank you Elena for your feedback! Stay tuned as we have more suggestions for Christmas beers and other enjoyable ways to drink Fermento beers!
Panettone and beer? That’s definitively worth a try! And thanks for the cheese pairing suggestions.
Let us know, Diego your experience with this pairing. We are more than sure that you will enjoy the experience of this Christmas beer with cheese and panettone!
Io e i miei amici siamo molto interessati alle birre artigianali di qualità. Mi piacciono molto anche i dolci e per me abbinare le birre natalizie ai dolci è una piacevolissima novità. Provero’ sicuramente la Fermento Ventuno
Grazie Giulia, per apprezzare le birre artigianali e le birre natalizie. La nostra Ventuno è speciale per il suo sapore e per la sua versalita’ con molti piatti. E’ una birra di Natale molto indicata per formaggi anche artigianali e per molti dolci. Tanti auguri!