Abita Christmas Ale

Even though Christmas marks the most magical time of the year, it is often also the freezing cold, wet and uncomfortable start of winter Autumn has disappeared by the first days of Advent at the latest and the first night frosts are sweeping across the country Darkness is reaching its zenith and the first snow has already fallen In this half of the year, we long for warmth, light, coziness and soul-satisfying delicacies

The Christmas Ale from Abita, for example, falls into the latter category The delicious brown ale is brewed with an abundance of six different types of malt and warms frost-bitten minds with an alcohol content of 5.8% To give their festive beer that little bit extra, the brewers have brewed in a particularly large portion of hops and also cold-hopped the beer The Centennial, Cascade, Columbus and Amarillo varieties give the malt body fruity citrus notes, spicy pine notes and a crisp bitterness

The composition of strong malt and four types of green gold flows into the glass in a festive copper red and is crowned with a hand's breadth of nut-colored foam The aroma of candied dark fruits rises to the nose and combines with winter spices to create a tantalizing blend The aftertaste combines caramel, roasted pecans and roasted malt with pine resin and lemon peel A hoppy bitterness completes the play of aromas