It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Beer: Is/Was Saison De Non-Denomination and Goose Island Christmas IPA

As I continue playing catch-up on my beer advent calendar, I had another two beers tonight.  The first was #18 in the advent calendar, and it was from Chicago nano-brewery Is/Was.  This was another interesting take on seasonal beers.  You don't usually see saisons in the winter (at least in the U.S.), but this was a seasonal saison called Saison De Non-Denomination that was brewed in collaboration with Beer On The Wall, the beer store that put together the advent calendar.  Per the bottle, it's their take on a traditional Belgian holiday beer.  They took a rye saison and added some clove, allspice, ginger, mace, cardamom, and cinnamon.  Saisons can be dank, and this was a little dank, but the spices counterbalanced the dankness for a unique holiday beer.  

Name:  Saison De Non-Denomination

Brewery:  Is/Was Brewing

Location:  Chicago, IL

ABV:  6.5%

IBU:  N/A

Good for drinking if:  You need a beer after serving jury duty in December.

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  3.75

Beer #19 was Goose Island's Christmas IPA, which is to say that it's an IPA that has the word "Christmas" in front of it.

Name:  Christmas IPA

Brewery:  Goose Island Beer Co.

Location:  Chicago, IL

ABV:  7.5%

IBU:  38

Good for drinking if:  You're an IPA fan and you want to be able to say "see, I like winter beers."

Rating (out of five stars, by quarter star increments):  3.5