Ok, you say Christmas is over. Yes, that may be true, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying all of those wonderful Christmas brews out there. In fact, there are so many of them now that it may be difficult to fit them all into one Christmas season without emerging into the following year with an 800-pound liver.

So, I like to stash a few away for enjoyment throughout the year. I like them best in the winter season, and really there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a hearty holiday brew in January or February. So that’s what I did with my bottle of St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel. Noel is French for Christmas for all you non-Francophones out there. But this beer comes from Belgium, where they speak French, too.

This is a big bottle. It’s a 750ml corked bottle, nicely adorned with a gold foil label depicting a snowy little village with a Christmas tree in the foreground. This is an Abbey Ale (though not a Trappist one), and a mighty potent one too at 9% alcohol by volume.

I was saving this beer for some sort of special occasion, and the time seemed right to pop it after the Patriots beat the Colts in the playoffs this year. According to the label, this beer is brewed at the end of the year and “matured for several months” in cellar. So, what I’m drinking was probably brewed at the end of 2003. The beer is bottle-conditioned with yeast for extra complexity.

On their website, St. Feuillien says:

This beer has a generous head - compact and firm. Its slightly brown colour is the result of the roasted barley. It has a dark ruby brown colour and a very intense aroma. The aromatic herbs and spices used greatly enhance its delicious smell. This beer is full-bodied with a smoothness that is the result of the synergy of caramelized malts, carefully controlled fermentation and long cold storage. St Feuillien Cuvée de Noël has a very subtle bitterness that is the dominant flavour in this harmonious ale that strikes a perfect balance between all the different ingredients.

I pop the cork. I’m ready to enjoy. Pouring into a wide-mouthed, bowl-shaped glass, my beer pours to a reddish brown color. A huge, rocky head of foam forms from a gentle pour atop the liquid. The nose is spicy and full of funky Belgian yeast notes. As I sip, a very thick layer or Brussels lace coats the side of my glass.

The beer is divine. Chocolaty like a dubbel, but also with yeasty notes akin to a tripel. The strength of a tripel is there too. Lots of spice. Coriander, vanilla, nutmeg, anisette. The body is smooth and creamy, and glides over the tongue with a cookie-like flavor. A bit toasty, slightly smoky even. Very complex with lots of flavors going on. I just got a note of banana.

In the finish, there isn’t much hop bitterness discernible, but there is a high-octane alcohol burn reminiscent of whisky. The spices intensify in the finish, too.

Wow. This is one heck of a beer. Errr, make that heaven of a beer. The monks might be reading. Best enjoyed cool but not cold, St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel is a special beer indeed. It’s the perfect beer to celebrate a special occasion with.

Update 12/14/2013: My friends, today we’re going to talk about patience. Certainly, we’re going to talk about beer, too, but beer and patience. OK, mostly beer you see, because the patience lesson is totally with regard to beer. But still. Who said beer can’t teach you a lesson on virtue now and then? And that lesson today comes courtesy of the St. Feuillien brewery and their St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel Belgian Special Ale.

Out story begins in 1125, the year that the Abbaye St-Feuillien du Roeulx was founded. In fact, if you’ll look at your bottle of St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel Belgian Special Ale, you’ll see “anno 1125” right there on the label. Now, these monks were patient, you see, because they didn’t really get their own commercial brand of beer until 1873.

That’s not to say that beer wasn’t brewed on the premises of the St. Feuillien Abbey all those centuries-it was, hence the name of the beer. But the beers of St. Feuillien that we know and love did not exist for commercial sale. Today, St. Feuillien beers are not brewed at the monastery-if they did, they would be Trappist beers. They are brewed after the Trappist styles, however, and hence can be called abbey ales.

From the bottle label:

St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel is specially brewed at the end of the year. It is a festive ale full of flavor with a warm, amber glow. Refermented in the bottle, Cuvee de Noel is matured for several months in our cellars, lending it a delicate aroma, remarkable body, and a naturally rich head. It is full of sumptuous exciting contrasts.

Now back to patience. I originally thought this beer was a bottle that I bought back in 2005 here in Georgia, but then I realized that was another beer in fact. No, this bottle of St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel Belgian Special Ale is one that I had bought back in Rhode Island in 1998. Instead of being 8 years old, this beer is actually 15 years old.

The key of course was the distortion of the label from sitting in ice on the way to Georgia from Rhode Island. Hence, back to patience. I’ve been sitting on this beer patiently for 15 years. So, I originally thought this beer was bought in 2005, sat in my DBR (Dedicated Beer Refrigerator) in my Atlanta apartment for 5 years until 2010, then aged another 3 years and 8 months here in my DBR here in my Canton home.

That’s not the whole story, though. As it happens, my bottle of St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel Belgian Special sat in my cellar and DBR in West Warwick Rhode Island for 3 years, survived a 1000-mile move to Rome, Georgia in a cooler full of ice, sat in my beer fridge there for a year and a half, sat in my DBR (Dedicated Beer Refrigerator) in my Atlanta apartment for 7 years until 2010, then aged another 3 years and 8 months here in my DBR here in my Canton home.

Really, though is that the whole story? Because one could easily say that the story of this beer began in 1873 with the dawn of the Brasserie  St-Feuillien, the fine folks who waited roughly 122 years to brew it, so that I could buy it and stock it in my cellar and DBR in West Warwick Rhode Island for 3 years, take it on a 1000-mile move to Rome, Georgia in a cooler full of ice, sock it away in my beer fridge there for a year and a half, then move it to my DBR (Dedicated Beer Refrigerator) in my Atlanta apartment for 7 years until 2010, and age it a further 3 years and 8 months here in my DBR in my Canton home.

Of course, following that line of thought, couldn’t you also say that Cuvee de Noel’s origins really go back to 1125, when the abbey was founded so that Brasserie  St-Feuillien could open in 1873, whose fine folks waited roughly 122 years to brew it, so that I could buy it and stock it in my cellar and DBR in West Warwick Rhode Island for 3 years, take it on a 1000-mile move to Rome, Georgia in a cooler full of ice, sock it away in my beer fridge there for a year and a half, then move it to my DBR (Dedicated Beer Refrigerator) in my Atlanta apartment for 7 years until 2010, and age it a further 3 years and 8 months here in my DBR in my Canton home?

I think so. As I said, patience. If you don’t mind, though, I’ve waited 888 years, so excuse me while I drink this beer.  

St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel Belgian Special Ale pours to a dark brownish color with a very minimal head formation and an absolutely wonderful prune, raisin and yeast nose. Taking a sip, the beer just glides over the palate in waves: chocolaty Christmas cookies, raisin, prune, vanilla, toasted hazelnuts, plum pudding, and funky Belgian yeast. Deceptively easy to drink, while this beer is dry in the finish it does not seem at all its 9% strength.

Just a wonderful, wonderful brew, beautiful with 15 years of age on it. Or 888. You decide.

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