If I’m doing a post with a Christmas theme of sorts, it makes sense to have at least one beer that also has a Christmas theme. This is one the annual Christmas beers from HopDog in Nowra – the 2013 vintage as you can see from the photo.

Living just an hour from Nowra where HopDog is based means I tend to see a few bottles of Tim Thomas’ Christmas beers floating around in late December. Maybe it’s because not as many people buy them in Wollongong as they do in Sydney. Maybe Tim has a few extra cases sitting around the brewery and it’s easier to drive them an hour up the road to a Wollongong bottle shop rather than the two-plus hour trip to Sydney.

Anyway, I see his Christmas beers on the shelf in late December and I think “I’ve already tried that one but, seeing as how it’s almost Christmas I might buy another one but hang onto it for a while”. That’s why I still have this. Actually, I think I have another bottle somewhere, as well as a 2014 Secret Santa.

As you’d expect from Thomas, it’s a big, involved beer. There’s home-made gingerbread biscuits chucked into the mash, coconut into the kettle as well as dried orange peel and coriander to make a 7 per cent effort.

It’s not as sweet as I remember it (though I did last drink it two years ago) but still good. There is strong gingerbread notes and flavours, as well as the very noticeable presence of the Belgian yeast. There are also raisin, fruitcake-like characters as well. It’s an appropriate beer for Christmas – even two years later.

Huh?: By that I assume you don’t know what this is about. Well, I have a beer fridge at home that we’ll be calling into use to stock up with food for the guests coming for Christmas lunch. That means I have to take out the beer in a few weeks. To make that a little easier, I thought I’d drink some of it so there is less to move.