The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale has been a grocery store staple for years and made the Sierra Nevada Brewing Companies one of the most successful craft breweries in the country.

Salvation might go better with Easter considering its Christy themes of redemption and sacrifice, but for the more religious beer drinkers out there, Avery’s Salvation may be one of the only beers out there to acknowledge any sort of religion on its label.

British brewer Harvey and Son’s bold Christmas Ale is unique among your standard fare of holiday beers.

If anything Blue Point’s Winter Ale looks like the type of beer you would want to drink on Christmas.

Aside from its excellent brown ale Hobgoblin, English brewer Wychwood’s line up of beers is less than stellar. Knowing this, we came to the brewer’s Dickensian themed Christmas ale with quiet sense of trepidation.

After all of that spice, Weyerbacher’s Winter Ale is a welcome departure. The darkest of the bunch, this winter ale dispenses with the idea that a beer has to bombard the senses with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves (it’s surprising no one has tried making a beer with myrrh) in order to get across the idea of holiday cheer.

Anchor has been brewing its special batch of Christmas Ale since 1975, but it mixes up the recipe every year. This year’s ale is oaky brown with a spicy bite that settles into a mellow fruitiness that’s akin to snaking on a spiced fruitcake.

In Manhattan’s McSorley’s Old Ale House, a newspaper clipping printed on the back of every menu describes the saloon as “an ancient landmark, a relic of one phase of American life that has passed.” It goes on to praise the then-60 year old bar as a stoic establishment where philosophers can assemble their thoughts over a humble mug of ale and enjoy the sense of permanence in an atmosphere impervious to the rapid changes brought on in the early 20th century. Did I mention that this article was written 96 years ago?