Welcome, Father Christmas. I for one always welcome Father Christmas, because you know, he brings such really great stuff with him. I know that might sound a tad materialistic, but hey, Father Christmas brings beer, and that’s OK in my book. For a beer lover in fact, Christmas is one of the best times of the year, thanks to the veritable plethora of winter and holiday seasonal ales.

One of those you should try is Pere Noel Belgian Christmas from Belgium’s De Ranke Brewery. De Ranke is located in Wevelgem, and I have enjoyed a number of tasty beers from them over the years. I got an 11.2 ounce brown glass bottle for $1.99 at Total Wine. The bottle describes this as a “Belgian Christmas Ale”, which really leaves the door wide open for a lot.

From the De Ranke website:

Père Noël is a Christmas ale, though very different from any other Christmas ales you might know. While most Christmas ales are rich & sweet, this one is amber-coloured, 7% vol. Alc. strong and tastes quite bitter. The complex taste is completed with the addition of liquorice. In the recipe we can also find pale malt, Munich malt, Caramel malt, Brewers Gold hops and Hallertau hops.

Let’s see what Santa brought, shall we?

Pere Noel Belgian Christmas Ale pours to a very cloudy, hazy muddy gold color with a huge rocky head formation and a tempting nose of floral minty hops and vanilla. A thick layer of Brussels lace lines my glass and follows the liquid down to the bottom. I get a bit of caramel up front, some crackery wheat and biscuit malt perhaps, a hint of vanilla, a faint trace of butterscotch, sharp citrus peel, star anise, and pear fruit. The long dry finish is big on mint with a long dry herbal bitterness.

I aged my bottle for a year and it held up wonderfully; I can imagine it could have gone longer still. Another holiday beer I’ll add to my annual Christmas beer shopping list. Perhaps a Belgian strong in style?



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