WILK Friday BeerBuzz–17 Dec 2010 (St Bernardus Christmas Ale)

As we fly down the holiday gauntlet and as our lives get more and more hectic, it was nice to pause and enjoy a really great holiday beer with the Friday BeerBuzz crew. 

St Bernardus Christmas Ale comes to us from a very historic brewery, but it’s actually their youngest beer.  Based on their Abt 12, Christmas Ale has a deep rich color and a warming and complex taste.  This is a beer to sip slowly and enjoy as it warms and changes, and a beer I’d recommend everyone try.  This is also a bottle-conditioned beer that will cellar well and be even better (and stronger) next year.

To answer another often asked beer question based on St Bernardus beer, “Abt” is a flemish term used to refer to the abbot in the monastic breweries.  The term was loosely used to refer to a trappist brewery’s strongest or highest ranking beer, muck like the abbot.  The 12 in “Abt 12” is also a measure of strength referring to the OG or original gravity.  In this case the 12 really refers to an OG of 1.120.  So as you can see, these beers have a long & interesting history.

Be SURE to tune in next week on Christmas Eve (and again on New Years Eve) at 11AM for our Very Special 1-Hour Friday BeerBuzz on WILK (103.1FM & wilknewsradio.com).  We’ll have multiple beers, multiple guests, multiple beer cam movies and all sorts of surprises for your holiday fun.  Sleep in and join us at 11AM!

Get out and get some St Bernardus Christmas Ale before it’s all gone. 
Thank you
to Jack Gretz, John, Nancy, Joe & Bosco for yet another fun Friday. 
The Friday Beerbuzz…bringing good beers and good people together. 
As always you can check out the video on-line at the WILK Friday Beerbuzz page by clicking HERE
.