For the Sixth beer of Christmas...

~~~~For the Sixth beer of Christ-mas,~~~~

~~~~the beer-store gave to me,~~~~
~~~~Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale!~~~~

Oh no! It's already December 17th and I still have 7 beers to go! To make sure I'm able publish all 12 suggestions while there's still time to go out and try 'em, I'll be shortening the reviews a little so that I can get them posted quicker...

So.... without further ado, the sixth beer on my list is Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. Sierra Nevada is one of the few American breweries that has mastered both the 'quality' and 'quantity' aspects of beer production. A lot of companies are extremely good at one but not the other, but Sierra Nevada has managed to increase distribution without sacrificing any of the attention to detail and pride of product that make craft beers so great.

Celebration Ale is a great example of what I think a holiday beer should be. It's full bodied, and has so many wonderful Christmas flavors (particularly cinnamon, nutmeg and malt). It has a rich copper-red color, and beautiful bright clarity. There's a touch of brown sugar and a wonderful bitter-hop finish.

Is this the best Christmas beer I've ever had? NO! but is it darn good? You betcha! In fact, I think this is a perfect litmus test beer for anyone who has never had a holiday seasonal. If you try this beer and say to yourself, "this ain't what beer tastes like, bahh-Humbug!" Well, then you should probably skip my next 6 recommendations too. If you try this and like it, print out my last six recommendation, and go shopping!

Six down-six to go! Stay tuned, they're going to be coming out rapid fire now!

-Prost!
D.Lux