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)

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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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