As we head into the rush of the holiday season, the pubcast crew decided we should highlight some seasonal ales and winter warmers that we think would be good for experienced and new craft beer drinkers to try. It seems to be the spiced ales that come in for most of the attention, but we are trying to look at a couple of other brews that could be good alternatives to those heavy stouts we looked at last week.

This edition is what we consider our Brit and Yankee Christmas party, and joining Phil and Mark is friend of the pubcast and certified consumer,Tom Ryan, Chuck Fort, assistant brewer at Church Street, and as we are recording live at John’s Tavern in Winfield, publican and owner John Karwoski rounds out our trinity of tasters. It’s a seasonal six-pack and we chose our top 2 at the conclusion on our tasting session.

We sample the following beers for your consideration:
Church Street Brewing, Itasca IL – Pontificator, Doppelbock, 7.0%
Sam Smiths Yorkshire, England – Winter Warmer, 6.0%
Noon Whistle Brewing, Lombard IL – Bog Theory, Cranberry Mint Saison, 4.8%
Pipeworks Brewing, Chicago IL – Santa vs Unicorn, American Barley-wine Style Ale, 10%
Cahoots Brewing – AMeN!, Barrel-Aged Barleywine, 10.1%
Anchor Brewing Co., San Francisco CA – Christmas Ale 2016, 6.5%

Play the show from our player below, or from SoundCloud…