One of the best things about holiday beers is there are seemingly endless variations and excellent options for tucking a few bottles away in the cellar to age.  I have mentioned cellaring in passing a couple of times now, if you are not familiar with the concept it is fairly simple.  Strong ales, and some lagers, can be aged to present interesting more developed and refined aroma and flavor characteristics.  The average lager or ale is meant to be consumed as close to being brewed as possible, however, beers of greater gravity (starting measure of sugar as potential alcohol) generally are good candidates for aging. I’ll cover cellaring beer, including why I do it, in more detail at a later point.  I mention it in passing because the first beer I am going to be talking about has been hanging in my cellar since Christmas of 2006.  The second I have been aging since last December.

Trader Joe’s Vintage Ale (produced for TJ’s by Unibroue) 2006, a Belgian Strong Dark that is bottle conditioned, has a deep subtle sweetness and a warming alcohol character.  It has been nearly 2 years since I had my other remaining bottle, much of this beer to my chagrin went early because it was incredibly delicious even between 3 to 6 months old.  If you know someone in the neighborhood of Trader Joe’s and you enjoy Belgian ales have them buy you a case.  It generally retails at $5-$6 a bottle and the brewery who produces this for the cult fave market is an outstanding production house with a wide array of Belgian ales, including a world classic Tripel, La fin Du Monde.  While each vintage will vary somewhat in character and basic recipe, the beers are excellent for aging and an incredible buy.  You can buy the current 2009 vintage ale in 750 ml corked and caged bottles.  The flavors of this ale depending on its age will vary its compliment to food, my guess is with age it will go better with desserts such as mousse of artisan chocolates and fudge.  When young it is well paired with seasoned pork, pungent cheese plates or bacon wrapped scallops.

Scaldis Noel Premium is Scaldis Noel’s slightly bigger more impressive looking brother, the latter can be purchased in single serve 8.5 ounce bottles weighing in at a hefty 12% alcohol by volume.   Premium is available in 750 ml corked and caged bottles, it is a completely unfiltered bottle conditioned ale, of 13% abv from the brewery in Wallonia, Belgium.  Pour Scaldis with care so as not to disturb the sediment in the bottle, but don’t fret some of it is going to get in the glass.  With this beer your mouth will tell you more than your eyes anyhow.  Scaldis Noel drinks like a true barley wine, with almost no perceptible hop bitterness let alone flavor or aroma from the flower.  It has a light peppery spice character from the yeast with huge notes of date, fig, dried orange and apricot.  You can find the 2009 edition at Oliver’s Beverage in Albany and Savemore Beverage in Clifton Park.  If the latter is not out of your way the price is a significant bargain at $11, elsewhere it is priced $18 - $20.  Forget food pairings with this one, make sure your pajamas are on, the fire is substantially fed and perhaps grab a few sugar cookies.

Finally, in this round of fine ales we come back stateside to the greatest wonder in Cooperstown NY - Brewery Ommegang’s newest addition, Adoration.  I wrote about my journey to get Adoration at Waffles and Puppets back in October, it was a tear jerker. Anyway, Adoration is brewed in the tradition of a Belgian Winter Holiday Ale, a strong dark ale coming in at 10% abv, it is spiced with a mix of coriander, cumin, mace, cardamom and grains of paradise.  This release by Ommegang was easily the most difficult beer for me to find and living only 60 miles from the brewery made it all the more frustrating.  At this time I have only seen the beer at the aforementioned Savemore Beverage in Clifton Park.  I have yet to sample Adoration, but I have never been disappointed with the ales from this gem of a brewery.  At times the ales may present a hotter more pronounced alcohol character when young, but this is the worst I could say, age the beer if necessary.

Up next, three classics from New York State, a Russian Imperial Stout, an English Style Barley Wine and a winter wonderland hop infused IPA.