It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: Bruery 7 Swans-A-Swimming and Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome

The Bruery 7 Swans-A-Swimming

Yesterday, we had some friends over to watch some football and wallow in misery at the Bears' situation.  We also drank beer.  One of the beers I drank was The Bruery's 7 Swans-A-Swimming.  Each year, The Bruery puts out a different winter seasonal beer named after one of the 12 Days of Christmas.  This is, obviously, the seventh in that series.  Each beer is different, and I know I've had a couple, but the one that stands out to me is the 4 Calling Birds, which was heavy on the licorice.  7 Swans-A-Swimming is a Belgian style quadrupel, which means it's strong and delicious.  It's not a traditional winter beer, but it is still very good.

Name:  7 Swans-A-Swimming

Brewery:  The Bruery

Location:  Placentia, California

ABV:  11%

IBU:  35

Good for drinking if:  you think it's funny that someone named a town Placentia.

Rating:  4 stars (out of 5)

Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome

Tonight, I went with an English selection, Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome.  Like the Rosey Nosey I had on Boxing Day, the Winter Welcome is more of an English ale than what you might think of as a winter beer.  It's a lot lighter in color and doesn't have any of the traditional spices, but it's still quite good.  I generally enjoy the other Samuel Smith's beers I've had, most notably the Taddy Porter (also the name of a great band) and the Oatmeal Stout (not the name of a great band, at least not yet).  That's about all I have to say about that.  I don't know why I just quoted Forrest Gump.  That's my boat.

Name:  Winter Welcome Ale

Brewery:  Samuel Smith's Old Brewery

Location:  Tadcaster, UK

ABV:  6%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  you're using your time off work to watch the entire series of Peaky Blinders.

Rating:  4 stars (out of 5)