Update metadata and transcripts through end of July 2026

Refreshed episodes/hosts/comments/series from hpr.sql, and added
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+Episode: 4541
+Title: HPR Beer Garden 7 - UK Christmas Ales
+Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4541/hpr4541.mp3
+Transcribed: 2026-07-31 16:13:31 (official HPR transcript)
+
+---
+
+This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4541, for 2025-12-29
+Today's show is entitled, "HPR Beer Garden 7 - UK Christmas Ales"
+The host is Kevie and the duration is 00:22:08
+The flag is Clean, and the license is CC-BY-SA
+The summary is "Dave, Kevie and Paul talk about UK Christmas beers."
+Hello and welcome to Episode 7 of the Beer Garden.
+Now you can't expect us to approach Christmas without giving us a great chance to get
+some festive beers in.
+So I'm really looking forward to this episode.
+In fact, it's maybe as a secret, I'm gonna let the cat to the bag, we're gonna have
+not one but two Christmas beer episodes.
+But before we actually want to talk about this, let us introduce my co-hosts because
+it's not just co-host, it is co-hosts.
+Dave, how are you tonight?
+I am very well thank you, after the slight panic this morning of thinking my car was
+there.
+It is now back up and running.
+But no, I'm doing very well indeed, thank you very much indeed.
+Good, good.
+No.
+I'll tell California, you can try and check out but you can never leave.
+So we have drag back Paul for this, how are you tonight Paul?
+I'm fantastic, thank you very much, Kelly and good to see you, because last time I was
+here, you weren't able to join us sadly.
+Yes, I was absolutely full of the cold, yeah, good to see you.
+Yes, thank you and welcome back once again to the show.
+Thank you very much.
+We split this up into two different countries more or less, so tonight we are going to
+look at Christmas ails from the UK.
+Actually, I found this one really interesting, researching it.
+So I found out that for our actual style of British Christmas ails, we've got Charles Dickens
+to thanks and in particular the novel, a Christmas carol which was published at first in 1843.
+The Victorians only got into the swing of Christmas, and the way we know it now after Charles
+Dickens actually gave them his rendition of Christmas through his well-known festive
+novel.
+Prior to this, Christmas in the UK had not been considered up for always for particularly
+pious time for Christian reflection.
+However, Dickens had borrowed the lavish feasts from mostly Germanic and Scandinavian
+cultures, and of course, and that's where we get the tables full of meat, the rich
+buildings, the plum puddings, all of the fantastic vegetables that we're also known
+to love, and that thing that always makes us a bit extra at Christmas, the plates are
+piled up at higher, and of course, what comes with that, but are lovely beer.
+And this beer was a design specifically to cut through the rich food that the season
+brought.
+And the beer was specifically designed to be strong, it was designed to be spiced, it was
+always dark, and it was always at the time, we'd want to say at the time, aim to be stronger
+than 10%.
+So this is the one that you thought you liked as snooze on Christmas Day.
+You have one of this for Christmas dinner, you're going to be snoozing by the fire.
+It is also worth noting that at this time, the vast majority of Britons did not touch
+wine at all, so the beer was brought in because it was a more British style of drink.
+Although this is classed as the Christmas beers of Britain, this was the original birth,
+it wasn't actually until the 1980s that the term Christmas beer came into popular use.
+That's relatively recent for this style to be called that.
+And thankfully it hadn't, but the style almost died of completely following the first
+word, where beer taxation laws and brewers were basically forced to water these down
+from the post 10% to the sub 3% levels, and this led to a huge lack in popularity because
+of these bold, rich flavors were essentially watered down, and it is a bit sad to see when
+you think that today, unless you go to a specific beer shop or maybe a special of license
+that specializes in craft beer, then realistically the most strongest you're going to get,
+is really just going to range between five and seven percent ABV. We have the micro breweries
+over the past kind of 30 years rising up, who are actually to thank for actually bringing back
+the more traditional style of ale's, let's see. Right, so that is what my research came up with.
+Does anybody have anything to add to that? Not from my side, Kerry. It sounds like you've
+done a pretty good job in looking into that. Yeah, likewise, I'm not that OFA or up to speed with
+Christmas Isles anyway, so I think it's going to be a more of an education for me than the
+thing else. Right in, so I've spoken for a long enough, I think. I think it's about time we start
+cracking some of these beers open. Now, I think given we've forced them back, I think it's only
+right Paul can actually go first here. So Paul, what do you have as your Christmas ale? Well,
+I can tell you a story about my Christmas ale because when you invited me last week, I went down
+to the supermarket to have a look. Not the supermarket is necessarily the best place to buy craft beer,
+but I thought I would try and there was nothing there. So I tried bargain booze and they told me
+that they would be having a delivery in a week or two. So I thought, well, that's no good. So I contacted
+my daughter who lives in Manchester and she said, oh, I know where I can get Christmas ale from
+and she's come back with a selection of over half a dozen. Anyway, while she was doing that,
+I was over in Ritham, which is another town quite close to where I live here in Mold. And I was in a
+shop there and they actually did have a Christmas ale called Mary X-Mousse from Purple Mousse Brewery
+who are based in Port Maddox. So it's a Welsh beer. It's a strong winter ale. They say it's
+deep red, has a multi-hoppy winter fruit nose and rich warm molasses taste and it's 5%
+a by volume. So yeah, so it's a nice looking beer. I do like the Purple Mousse beers. I
+have been entering some of their other varieties as well. So I'm going to crack this open and see what we
+have. I'm not sure if you'll get a sound effect, but we'll give it a hand. Yeah, got that. Yeah.
+So it isn't pouring out the bottle, which is a good sign. Very nice. So I should hold that up
+so they're my colleagues and see it. So it's quite dark. Oh, yes. Probably it looks dark on the
+picture actually than it isn't real. But it is a dark red. It does have a very nice nose.
+Well that's very nice. I could definitely sit down in front of the fire and have one or two of
+those. They're very nice indeed. So I would definitely recommend that and you can buy them online as
+well. So Purple Mousse Brewery do have a shop. So I'd definitely recommend giving them a go.
+What did you bring Dave? Well, if I show you the bottom of the bottle, you should recognize the
+brewery immediately. Yeah. It's in Beadish. It's some peaters. Now I looked around for a number of
+different beer pavayers. It is worth pointing out. Forget the supermarket. Particularly this time of
+year. There is nothing available in any of the major supermarket at this time of year at all.
+Even as we were talking earlier about the delirium, they had delirium on the shelves, but it wasn't
+a Christmas one. So I had to resort to Amazon to get this in available in time. Now I actually ordered
+two batches. I ordered some from the the Keltel Brewery, which is down in Cornwall. But I ordered
+these ones as well because these are the ones I actually wanted to try because it sounded really
+nice. So I read the label. Toffee and caramel aromas with rich Christmas spice flavour. And I'm like
+that really appealed to me. I have a love hate relationship with a St. Peter's brewery. They look
+nice. They smell nice. The bottles look great. But very often they tend not to deliver. Particularly
+the plum portal, which is the first one I've ever had and I thought, oh, this is going to be amazing.
+Yeah, that definitely goes for one of the most disappointing beers I think I've ever had. It looked
+smell of everything and then it was all. Yeah, precisely. So there's some openness. It's a
+site say it's a Peter's Christmas aisle. It's 7% which isn't anywhere near the 10 plus that you
+mentioned earlier. But hopefully this will, or didn't hear it, here's on the hotel. Oh, smells
+boozy. So we get some sound effect. That is an amber ale. No question at all. You can't see that.
+That's more of my money from airport interview. No, it's definitely there. Yeah, you can't
+kind of see through it. Yeah. You can see my face. They all are a little woo. It looks nice. It's a
+little bit of a head on the top. I can smell the spices, but I can't smell much else. Unfortunately,
+in the glasses is, is relying even less than the, um, a different the bottle. So let's give this a bit of a
+sweet and see. Oh, that is nice. Oh, good. What did I say to that? Topping caramel aromas with rich
+Christmas spice flavour. Well, the aromas don't deliver. It doesn't smell of anything at all.
+Um, maybe I have COVID. I don't know. But in terms of the flavours of it, there's a lot of spice
+in there. And I can't necessarily articulate anything specific. It does a taste Christmasy.
+Would you see? Kind of. Does that work? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, kind of. It's not unpleasant at all.
+It is actually quite a nice, uh, a nice beer, which I think coming from some Peter's,
+they would have to take that as an accolade. But I'm, I'm not getting the topping caramel,
+which is a wing. Maybe they're maybe I'm getting the topping caramel, but from the flavour
+rather than from the aroma. But yeah, it's, it's very pleasant. Very pleasant. I'm glad I bought
+three of them now. I bought three to just to be, to make myself happy that it was as bad as I was
+expecting it to be. And on that, on that scope, I've been disappointed. This is quite nice.
+Right then. So I've gone, I must admit, I've actually got a few different Christmas
+deals. The problem is the vast majority of them aren't what you would call a Christmas sale.
+You know, there, there's theme. They're like, I've got a few stouts and a Christmas themed. I've
+got barley wines and a Christmas themed. But I actually wanted some of the Christmas deals. So I
+kind of went boarding. And that's the reason I asked you Dave, where was yours from? Because I have
+gone with a very well-known brewery. Oh, it's life, yeah, it's time to smith. So this one says,
+the seasonal beer is a limited edition brew for the short days and long nights of winter. The
+full body resulting from fermentation and stone Yorkshire squares and the luxurious multi-character,
+which will appeal to a broad range of drinkers, is balanced against a whole dried
+fuggle and golden hoops with nuances and complexities that should be contemplated before an open fire.
+And I like this. I like this part. I'm sick of all these dirt beers in,
+best served chilled nonsense. They served at 11 degrees C. That is better. Do not chill at
+a dark beer. I don't chill any beer in my mouth. Don't chill any air. Don't chill your hair
+for vids and I kept it cool, right? Not chilled. Right, so let's get this one open. No, okay,
+I've got our red ball loop and a bit of a Christmas one, so this is actually my porpy one.
+Right, so let's see. Oh, no, no, we're in here as dark as I was expecting.
+There we go. This is more than kind of umberial. Nice, decent size head on it.
+Quite a lovely quality. No, actually like I said, not what I was expecting at all, but
+lovely clarity, decent size head quite a lively yield by the looks of it. So, oh, that reminds me of
+something from the nose. Not heavily spice and getting a very well balanced nose. There's
+maldiness, barley, and there's hops. There's maybe a faint, very, very faint spice on the
+back end. Give me a sec, I'm going to sniff the ball, it'll actually help give me a better one to the
+spices. There's more of a toffee node coming through when you sniff the bottle. Definitely a sweet
+or no one from the bottle compared to the glass. Oh, that's nice. Yes, I do like that. There's
+maldiness to it. I've been scored. There's some half-expecting that burnt caramel to come through.
+There's no burnt caramel. But there is a mild caramely taste to it, and then there's a mildly
+peppery mildly. I think it's more nutmeg more than cinnamon. And then you could have hoppy
+lingeringness on the back end. It's, yeah, that's actually quite, that's not what I was expecting,
+but it's very nice. That's deceptively drinkable. I think I could knock that back, would you
+what is me? What percentage is this? 6%. So about the average of what is expected, these days
+for a Christmas sale. So yes, yeah, I'm certainly going to be finishing off this one. This is not,
+no I'm going to end up going down the drain. Good. Is it? But is it what I would consider
+Christmas sale? There's spices in it. I'd say it's bordering. To me, it's more like a Christmas
+bitter, rather than what I think of a Christmas sale. Which probably does the extent
+come in the fact that it's English. They've probably taken a base bitter to start with. Interesting.
+Actually, Dave, that's how you think I'm just taking the picture and you're looking directly at the
+ball. I'll close that. That's actually really funny.
+How would you say it measures up to your expectation of a summer you'll Smith Bear? For a summer you'll
+be the quality is there. I mean, I generally like Samuel Smith. The quality is definitely there.
+Like I said, just from again, it's probably me being a fan of the Belgians, a fan of the
+Scottish Christmas sales. I was expecting a bit more multi-via, a bit more caramelty for me. That's
+just my purse. But that was me. It doesn't say that anywhere on the actual bordel.
+There's a nice link getting spicy, hopiness in the back end. I actually think this would
+actually be really good, I think, with Christmas dinner. Because it wouldn't dominate your dinner,
+but it would complement, especially with being Turkey, which isn't overly flavorful. I think it
+would complement it quite well. So I would say, especially if you could somebody in the family
+who people always tend to bring balls of wine and things like Christmas, if somebody's not a
+wine drink and they're a beer drinker, give them this for Christmas dinner. I think they would
+really, really be a police to be that. Is that not the test for a Christmas
+sales to whether it goes well with a Christmas dinner? I wouldn't say so. No, okay.
+Purely because I tend to find Christmas here, they don't go well with anything.
+They're so bold and flavorful, after the time. Okay, partially. That means they're more
+I kind of, to me, that if you want an equivalent, I would say Christmas sale would be more
+equivalent of a port. You'd have it before or after, you know, that kind of beside the fire,
+you know, something nice and warm. That kind of idea. That's just me. I don't know. That's 100% right.
+You actually preempted me on something I was going to say because having Luke tried this by the way,
+actually quite like it. Couldn't explain why. It tasted like an ale, but he couldn't necessarily
+pick anything specifically Christmasy out of it. But just poking my nose in now, this given a
+chance to settle, I'm getting port. I'm getting the aroma and the back of the throat
+flavours of port, which I wasn't expecting. But actually, I'm pleased with it. Yes, I'm so, so
+right. So Paul, if you're going to score this out of 10, what would you score? Oh my word, that's terrible.
+What's your new, what's your beer's name again? Experts. Mary, ex-muse.
+Mary, ex-muse. That's what it was. Yes. 100s or thousands of years ago, when most used to
+roam whales, apparently in the summer they would eat, they had them, and that would make them
+give them a purple sheen, hence the purple mousse name. I don't know. I mean, obviously,
+it was no one around to prove that, so it's a good story, isn't it? You never let the truth
+get in the way of a good story. Exactly, you know. Yeah, I would probably give it. I'd
+probably give it 9 out of 10. I mean, obviously, as a relative newcomer to untapped and scoring,
+but I would buy this again and drink it, definitely. I think it's a very nice beer. Like you say,
+how much of it's Christmas-y or how much of it's just a nice, well good-bodied, tasty ale,
+because I tend to prefer that type of ale rather than the lighter, you know, kind of honey-ails
+and so on, while I will drink them. So this is kind of up my street. I quite like this. So yeah,
+I'll give it a good mine at 10, I think. Good, good, good. Dave, what would you score the
+Saint Peter's Festival? It's good. I'm enjoying it, so it's at least a three. For me, I'm sorry,
+that I'm an untouched farmer, I guess. So it's okay, so it'll get a three.
+I just double my in-tapsicles, but a four is a good solid decent beer. What I would actually go
+back to. It doesn't quite reach that. So I'm going to rate this on untapped. Three and three quarter,
+3.75. So that's come down to about 7.5. Yeah, so 7.5. 7.5. Right, actually, I think that's
+what I am on this one roughly. It's, I think this has got the problem in that if I was reviewing
+this purely as a beer, any beer subline tasting, I may actually give it a bit more, but the fact
+it's called a winter warmer. No, sorry, winter welcome, winter welcome is what it's called.
+I've expecting a bit more from it. Is that maybe unfair on my part? And it's not bad. It just
+falls short of, I mean, to me, on untapped, four is very, very good, but there's room for improvement,
+but it is still very good. Five is just something I really give out. I mean, it has to, I have
+going to end the pass, but it has to be something I absolutely love. And three is something I'll say.
+That's okay. Two and a half is I didn't pour down the sink, but I didn't particularly enjoy anything
+if I thought it's below two and a half. So, you know, going on that, I think this is somewhere
+in between, it's okay and it's good. It's, it's neither, it's kind of, in between, it's better than
+okay. It's not quite up to the good standard. So I would go that kind of 7.5-ish range as well.
+Would I recommend it? Yes, would I recommend you hunt it down and go and pay quite a bit for
+no, no, definitely not. And especially given, as we've all found out, Christmas deals right now
+are not available in the supermarkets, and I don't have an awful lot of choice for local places
+outside the supermarkets, so I had to order this one online. So, yeah, it's, like I said, it's a
+solid one. I put it this way, normally I can get Santa's bud porter, which we spoke a bit before,
+which, in spite of the name, it does not taste earthly, you know, definitely not. It's a very
+pleasant, festive porter. I would have that over this. Yeah. So, yeah, it's a solid, it's a decent,
+well, maybe say decent, rather than solid. It's decent, it's a bit of a solid. So, I'm glad we've
+all got something we like. I see, I think I do have to perhaps spend some time drinking some
+of beers you're drinking, and just look at the comparative scoring on an attempt to get my
+calibration a little bit tighter. But I'm going to stick with the score I gave this, and I think it's a
+good beer, and I'm going to enjoy it. And I did buy two of them, so I will enjoy the second one as
+well at some point in the, not too distant future. Absolutely, absolutely. And it's, it's actually,
+it would be quite good to actually hear your thoughts as well, and the other ones are hopefully
+up with them on untapped. Hmm. Yes, I'm trying to get in the habit. Yes. I believe you'll not be
+with us for the next one, Paul. Is that right you're heading away? That is correct. I'm off to Germany
+next Monday, and I'll be away for a week, so I'll miss your next recording, which is a shame,
+because I do actually have a delirium Christmas here, which is probably right up your streak,
+and is a nice 10%. So, I will enjoy it in, in an, in an abstentia from the show.
+Well, you've actually got both myself and Dave's favorites, because you've got delirium for Dave,
+and you've got gardens for me. Indeed. I haven't even get that this year. It's better stock everywhere
+for me. You see, Manchester has everything. It's my daughter would tell me again and again.
+So, if you want to get in contact with us, then please leave a comment, or you can act
+generally, tag us on untapped. I'll put little aerodolinks or we're using them in the show notes,
+check over there, but thank you once again for joining us, and Joyce Login tomorrow for another
+exciting episode of Hacker Public Radio.
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