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Anheuser-Busch InBev went from a 14th century Belgian brewery to a massive multinational faceless corporate superbrewery in just a scant six and a half centuries. Over the past decade, Belgian brewery InBev devoured beer markets like candy, taking over large breweries like Fujian Sedrin in China to Lakeport in Canada. Their appetite culminated in 2008 when the company successfully purchased Anheuser-Busch in one of the biggest mergers of the decade. The combination created one of the top five producers of consumer products in the world, worth about $52 billion.
Getting blitzed over the holidays has been a time honored tradition for generations. Between rowdy Christmas parties and potentially hectic family gatherings, drink plays a major role in ramping up the yuletide joy for those disillusioned by the wonderfully hectic holiday.
The other true Belgian on our list, the Cuvée De Noël feels like a lighter St. Bernardus. The flavors are similar, but with lighter use of cinnamon and nutmeg and a stronger taste of toffee filling it out.
Full Moon’s dark color is deceptive to its thin flavor. There are hints of Christmas spice lingering in the glass, but when compared to some of these other wintry brews the flavor feels non-existent–like drinking cold, liquefied air.
With its cartoonish label that boasts an infusion of honey and cherry, we expected a something syrupy that tasted more like melted slurpee than beer. But much to our surprise, the Mad Elf Ale is more reserved than its packaging lets on.
The St. Bernardus beer with which we’re most familiar is the Abt 12, a Quadrupel that has a slight metallic sting to it that sort of tastes like blood. Ever since realizing this, the jolly drunken monk on the St. Bernardus labels has taken on a more sinister demeanor.
Like Jones Soda, Smuttynose is best recognized for the faux-vintage photography it uses on its labels. Old men sitting next to a trailer, a Labrador sitting on a stage, turn of the century carnival folk–that sort of thing.
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.
