12 Beers of Christmas | Fremont Brewing Coffee Cinnamon B-Bomb

ABV: 14.0% | IBU: 65

Fremont Brewing delivers another liquid giant to liven up another holiday season. Coffee Cinnamon B-Bomb is the awesomely adjunct-ed, cooler and even more popular older cousin of Bourbon Barrel Aged Winter Ale, Fremont’s flagship bourbon barrel aged beer. It can be found lounging around the MoonTower, slicking back it’s long golden waxy locks, and murmuring phrases like: “Alright, alright, alright.”
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12 Beers of Christmas | Port Brewing Santa’s Little Helper

ABV: 10.5%

When the weather outside gets frightful, a nice big imperial stout can be very delightful, but you should be sure that you’ve got no place to go. For me, one of my favorite big imperial stouts during the holiday season is Port Brewing’s Santa’s Little Helper. Like sweet baby Jesus, Santa’s Little Helper is pure and good in every way. The beer doesn’t have any “holiday seasoning” in it, which is a nice break after pumpkin beer season to avoid nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, etc.

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12 Beers of Christmas | Baderbräu Christmas Bliss Baltic Porter

French hens, ladies dancing, swans swimming and, of course, a porter in a beer tree. These are necessary components for a successful 12 days of Christmas. For this writer, the beer found under the tree is Baderbräu Christmas Bliss Baltic Porter with vanilla and orange peel. Because, in Chicago, Jack Frost does more than nip our noses, it darn near renders them red enough to qualify us to guide Santa’s sleigh. Hence, any porter good enough for those traversing the frigid waters of the Baltic Sea is good enough for us living on the ice-covered shores of Lake Michigan.

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12 Beers of Christmas | Vision Quest Brewery | The Magical Liopleurodon

7.0% ABV

Who doesn’t love a good holiday beer?! For myself specifically, I look for something either reminiscent of hot cocoa or coffee this time of the year. I want a drink that makes me feel like I could hold it close, like a recently opened present, while sitting in front of the fire surrounded by loved ones, (who are obviously all in matching pajamas) on Christmas morning. Yes, my holiday beer must be a brew with cozy flavors I can sip slowly, while watching my younger sister Jamie unwrap the EXACT Furby that I wanted (no, wait, sorry that was in 1998).

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