Last night, I was visited by a confluence of media. A cold, rainy evening in Portland, I needed to pick up some beers for the weekend, as my local was closed for Christmas and wouldn't be open until 2 PM, well after the Bills game. The walk is short, but in order to get to the bar, you need to walk through a homeless encampment of about a dozen cars and RVs without license plates. I can't even imagine what the holiday season is like for those in that situation. Traffic was light as I crossed the I-5 pedestrian bridge to get to the beerhouse. When I got to my destination, I sat at the bar just thinking about Christmas; past and present. A friend came into the shop and started casting Scrooged on one of the televisions. I was also scrolling through Twitter and saw a tweet from Beer Advocate. Again, it got me thinking (which is something I love and hate). What are my beers of Christmas past, present, and future?
Without a doubt, my beer of Christmas past and winter, in general, is Aviator Red from Flying Bison Brewing. Just thinking about that beer, memories rush back of when I decided to go to the University at Buffalo around 2006. Previously, I lived in the area but in 2006, I went for it. The malty taste of Aviator Red would linger on my upper lip and be amplified by the freezing air. Nights where I'd walk to Gordon's on Delaware Avenue. I would have a couple of Aviators, mix it up with the other locals and get some of the best chicken fingers in Buffalo. That bar is no longer around, so it's not as contentious of a statement as you'd think! Other honorable mentions go to Southern Tier's 2XMAS Winter Ale. It was pretty ubiquitous in the Western New York region but always warmed you up while sitting in another one of my old haunts - the Thirsty Buffalo. Plenty of memories in that place, but that's for another time. Another honorable mention is Sierra Nevada's Celebration IPA. Obviously, I drink this when it's released, but my connection to this winter IPA is that I would drink Celebration well after Christmas. Matt, from Mes Que, bought a bunch of Celebration but for some reason, it didn't sell as well. Not sure why, it's a great beer. But Matt would sell them to me 2 for 1, which is always a good heads-up move when you're pinching pennies or just a fan of a bargain.
As with any move, you create new routines and traditions. Portland, Oregon will not leave you without beer options, which actually makes it hard to lock down a beer I can say is my go-to beer. Rarely there is a beer that will be in the refrigerator more than twice, other than Breakside IPA or Grains of Wrath Dystopia. When I have a Breakside, I'm reminded of summertime. It's a year-round brew. The same goes for Dystopia. Six years removed from Buffalo, I'm still trying to create holiday traditions. It's trial and error because variables vary. Work schedules, bars being open or closed, and just the plethora of beer options make it hard. After almost two years of uncertainty with COVID, I think it's very important to maintain my own traditions. I know for me when my grandparents died over a decade ago, I knew that what I knew as Christmas would be changed and it has. Hence, the importance of creating your own traditions. Hail Santa from Grains of Wrath might be the go-to. It's a strong beer, weighing in at a solid 7% ABV. It has everything you want in a winter warmer, the Christmas cookie taste. It also has a profile where you won't be putting down 6 of these in a sitting.
The beer of Christmas future again is a difficult call. I expect to still be living in Portland and as such, you don't know where the beer market is going to go. Remember a couple of years ago where every beer you drank was a hazy beer? Only a handful of breweries around here do red ales and/or winter warmers. Hell, I remember being able to see a Cascadian Dark Lager more often than not. The beer of Christmas future will need to be a little more thought out on my end as I create new traditions with my friends and family here in Oregon. Maybe that's trying to find a way to smuggle Flying Bison here or even having my own holiday classic contracted out. Hell, now that I have the room to do so, I can always create my own holiday concoction.
