Christmas beer, holiday beer, winter beer—it doesn’t matter what you call it, all that matters is that it pairs well with a roaring fire and makes you feel cozy. Here’s our updated list of the 13 best winter beers.
The best winter beers walk a line—they don’t taste like cider or a gingerbread hard seltzer, they taste like beer with a little something extra. We’re talking pine, we’re talking mulling spice, we’re talking chocolate. That’s what I was looking for when I sat down to a table of winter beers—subtle flavors that added to the natural beer flavors, rather than simply covering them up. I definitely did not want something that tasted like eggnog and called itself a brown winter ale, or something that promised a whisper of mint and tasted like carbonated toothpaste.
After our most recent holiday beer taste test, I updated our list to include 11 seriously good winter beers. There’s something for everyone here, whether you’re a Christmas ale purist and will only drink biere de noel, or you’re looking for something more unconventional. So, don your coziest, ugliest Christmas sweater, break out the peppermint bark, and check out the best Christmas beers, winter beers, and general holiday beers to buy this year.
- Victory Merry Monkey
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If you love a wheat beer and a sweet beer, then this is the best Christmas beer for you. The Belgian-style ale layers flavors of cranberry, orange peel, cinnamon, and nutmeg on top of the brand’s Golden Monkey beer. The flavors show up but they don’t hit you over the head—it’s not like you’re drinking a Christmas candle from The Body Shop. But it definitely has the classic Belgian ale banana-bread undertone and it is certainly on the sweeter end of the spectrum. A good dessert Christmas ale. And at 10% ABV, it’s a good way to cap off the night.
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- Deschutes Jubelale
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This winter ale is dark but it’s hop-heavy, with notes of raw, unsweetened cocoa. It’s fascinating—a real conversation beer. It’s rich and heavy, a winter beer for mulling over thoughts and feelings. If you want a winter ale that’s not overly themed, this is a good pick.
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- Einstok Olgerd Icelandic Winter Ale
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If you’ve ever wanted to taste Icelandic winter, this winter beer delivers the experience right to your mouth. Brewed with whiskey-cured spruce tips and smoked barley, it feels like a beer Santa might drink (after responsibly parking his sleigh for the night, of course). “A real warm ya up beer,” as managing editor Gwynedd Stuart described it. It has a deep, sweet, smoky flavor. It has an umami quality with a touch of spruce-y bitterness at the finish. It’s not a crushable beer at 8%, but if you’re used to drinking double IPAs, this would be a good seasonal replacement.
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- Two Roads Holiday Ale
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Some folks want to drink a Christmas ale but they don’t want something that tastes like Christmas. If that’s you, try this seasonal biere de garde-style winter ale. You won’t get any cranberries or chocolate here, just the malty, earthy, round, bready flavors you expect from a farmhouse ale. Biere de noel (Christmas beer, in French) is a type of biere de garde enjoyed in parts of France in the weeks before Christmas. So, it’s still very festive—even if it doesn’t taste like a stocking stuffer.
Credit: Liv Averett / Two Roads
- Breckenridge Brewery Christmas Ale
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Even though there’s no fruit listed on the label, this Christmas ale smells like dark blackcurrants. To me, it even tasted a bit like mulled wine, too. It’s dark and rich and low on carbonation. It’s so close to being a stout, but not quite—in fact, if you’ve ever had a Guinness mixed with blackcurrant syrup, it’s not far from that. It’s an excellent dark holiday beer that nods to festive flavors without going overboard.
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- Sierra Nevada Celebration Fresh Hop Ale
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Hop haters can turn right around. This winter beer from Sierra Nevada is like an amped-up pale ale. It smells like the redwoods—like damp bark on a cold, Northern California morning. As a NorCal native, this is what winter smells like to me, so I may be a tad biased. But if that sounds at all appealing to you, I absolutely recommend this beer. It’s one of the best winter beers for people who don’t want a holiday-flavored beer, they want a winter ale.
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- Shiner Holiday Cheer
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Not everyone celebrates a cold Christmas or holiday. For those people, there’s Shiner Holiday Cheer, a peaches and pecan-flavored brew. At first, we were all a little confused by the canned peach flavor. But then we kept sipping. “I changed my mind and now I love it,” Gwynedd said. “I could drink a lot of that.” The malt and hops come through, so it doesn’t just taste like a soda. It’s bright, it’s refreshing, it’s a different kind of holiday beer—a Texas holiday beer.
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- Samuel Smith Winter Welcome Ale
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This is what “good beer” used to taste like in 2004, back before breweries were as prolific as coffee shops. But that doesn’t mean it’s not still good. It has a dark, fruity flavor—almost like it was aged in a Cabernet cask. That fruitiness makes it the best winter beer to pair with a cheese platter filled with aged cheddars and funky blues. The label is bonkers. It’s like someone just discovered clipart. But that’s a bonus, for me. It’s something to read while you’re kicking back.
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- St. Bernardus Christmas Ale
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“Yum, yum,” I wrote in my tasting notes. “You see how dark it is and you think it’s going to be heavy but it’s nice and light,” Gwynedd said, putting things a bit more eloquently. To me, this tastes like how Christmas is portrayed in A Christmas Carol—back when people in ascots and top hats decorated their dirty homes with strands of cranberries threaded onto a string and a dried cherry was a prized gift. It’s darkly fruity and tangy and 9.8% ABV, so it packs a punch. It’s one of the best winter beers to sip in your dressing gown and slippers.
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- Anderson Valley Winter Solstice Seasonal Ale
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Cozy up around a campfire in a spruce forest with this winter ale. The resin-tinged flavor somehow captures the essence of a cold, fall evening in the woods, complete with soft, fallen leaves underfoot and the sense that rain is just around the corner. I want one right now. At 6.9% (I won’t make a joke about that number, I promise), it’s not a session winter ale, but you can certainly have more than one, and you are definitely going to want to do just that.
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- Founders The Cranfather
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We have a new number one best Christmas beer this year. That’s in part, that’s because Anchor Brewing has stopped making our previous number one (their Merry Christmas Happy New Year beer), but, honestly, this Christmas beer might have taken the top spot regardless. It’s aged in bourbon barrels with cranberry, cherry, and orange peel, but it’s not your standard fruity beer. It has a tangy, balsamic vinegar aroma, which carries through to the first sip. There are a lot of sweet dried cherry and cranberry notes, and it ends tart—not sour. This holiday beer would be incredible with a slice of pecan pie or some walnuts and stilton cheese. It’s the best Christmas beer of 2023, and a special treat every of-age beer drinker must try.
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Best Wheat Beer
Best Dark
Best Smoky
Best Biere de Noel
Best for Stout Lovers
Best for IPA Lovers
Best If It’s Hot Outside
Best with Cheese
Best Fruity
Best Day Drinking Beer
Best of the Best
Other winter beers we tried: Brewdog Hoppy Christmas, Nice Chouffe, Left Hand Candy Cane Nitro (this one did earn an honorable mention—it is really mild on the mint with some good, bitter, stout notes), Rogue ‘22 Santa Private Reserve (previously included but out of date), Anchor Brewing Co. Merry Christmas Happy New Year (previously included but no longer in production)
