This Is My Blood: Holiday White Ale

Warning: there are probably going to be a fair number of holiday / "festive" beers featured in this column from here on out, and I really only have a finite amount of thoughts about them. Just like the omnipresence of Christmas music in early November, I'm pretty ambivalent about the whole two-month-long consumption of all things Christmas. I could take it or leave it until like mid-December. People who wait in line for the new festive winter ale on November 10th are silly, but people who complaint incessantly about the source of other people's joy are sillier. Listen to what you wanna listen to, drink what you wanna drink, it's all good brah.

Still, if I have a so-called holiday ale in my hand today, then I guess it's worth posing this question: what makes a "holiday ale" be considered as such? We've mentioned a couple times already that the term doesn't even apply to one beer style—bocks, Belgian strong ales, porters, and winter warmers can all fall under the umbrella term of "festive." I'm asking the question today because there's no doubt that Sam Adams' Holiday White Ale is a holiday beer—the word is right there in the name—but also, this beer is a fucking witbier (like a Blue Moon-esque beer, for all the neophyte readers out there). A witbier with cinnamon and nutmeg.

So is that the answer? The presence of certain spices makes it a holiday beer? That's an unsatisfying answer, because it's pretty much the same answer as the one for "What makes something a pumpkin beer?" And it's the same spices for both! So, what, a festive beer is a pumpkin beer without the pumpkin? That's off-putting to me, but it might be true.

As with all things supposedly Christmas-y, I guess it's all about labeling and categorizing and marketing. B101 radio wants you to think that Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is a Christmas song; I could tell you that I don't think it is, but wouldn't B101 know better than I would? What right do I have to say that something should or should not be included in the holiday season? If Sam Adams wants to tell me that a goddamn witbier is a Christmas beer, then I guess they are no more right or wrong than anyone else.

Merry Christmas.

NOTES
 

BEER: Holiday White Ale (the name of this beer was recently changed from "White Christmas" for reasons that I assume would piss off a whole bunch of conservatives)

STYLE: Witbier

ABV: 5.8%

BREWED BY: Boston Beer Company

LOCATION: Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts 

PURCHASED AT: GAT Beer

PAIRED WITH: tacos (good beer, good food, fucking awful pairing)

GRADE: 2.5 pukes out of 5

 

BEER COUNT: 472.5