12 Beers of Christmas (plus 3)

Santa’s Butt Winter Porter
Each year I make my Holiday To Do list. On that list for the past two years: mailing Christmas cards, selecting a decent wine for gifts, finding a present for Mrs. Dan and cleaning out the office room to make room for more junk … er… people to sleep. Each year I get the last two done. I am famous for allowing myself to get distracted with something unimportant when I should be working on the list.

This year my distraction is beer. Roger’s beer tasting several weeks ago featured some Christmas beers like Santa’s Butt and Reindeer Droppings. I didn’t make that tasting because I was at the SEC Championship in Atlanta. I got to wondering what Santa’s Butt tastes like. So I dropped by to buy a bottle, which is damn expensive I might add, and realized there was a plethora of Christmas and Winter brews this year. And since I don’t get to use the word plethora that much I decided to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas with beer. I stopped by Vineyard Wine Market and Wine World and loaded up. Maybe enough to stretch it out an extra day or two. Each day for 12 days I will try a different Holiday or Winter brew.

I started today with Santa’s Butt, the beer that inspired me. A great substitute for a Partridge in a Pear Tree. Being a 25 oz. brew I got a little help from Mark and Mrs. Dan.

This brew is dark like coffee. Definitely a heavy feeling beer but doesn’t have the usual bitter hoppy flavor some porters have. No aftertaste which I can’t say about most porters. The flavor jump starts your mouth then trails off quickly. I would almost call this a Porter Light because of the lack of hops.

The Shelton Brothers website says “they said it couldn’t be done, but we did it: Santa’s Butt, the beer, coming to a theater near you for the holidays. It’s a splendid, satisfying Winter Porter at 6% — a souped-up version of the classic Entire Butt Porter that you’ve enjoyed in the past. Everyone wants a piece of Santa’s Butt. This special porter is made for winter — rich and warming, the way they like it in the North Pole. It was inspired by this famous line from a well-loved children’s story book: “And Santa sat on his great butt, drinking a hearty brew.”
In case you find that amusing, we hasten to point out that in England ‘butt’ refers to a certain barrel used in brewing — a very large barrel, in fact, holding 108 imperial gallons. Back in the day it was quite a normal thing for a brewery to put its beer up in a large butt for storage.
Still snickering, eh? Get your mind out of the gutter or Santa will skip your house entirely this year.”

So, I think the 12 days of Christmas Beer are off to a great start.
From: United Kingdom
Brewery: Ridgeway
Cost: $5.39
Size: 1pt. 9 0z

12 Beers of Christmas (plus 3)

Day 1: Santa's Butt Winter Porter