great lakes christmas ale

http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/beer/an-exceptional-family-of-beers/seasonal/christmas-ale

it's award winning and it should be. you should drink it ice cold but it reminds you of something warm. i don't know what it is about winter ales and lagers, but they help me long for this season. perhaps it's the heavy clothing they remind me of and allow me to be anonymous. perhaps it's the heavy, stout flavor. i don't even like the cold. you know the natives? the people who were here before us? they imagined their hell was cold. that tends to make a whole lot more sense to me than the christian hell... beings the christian hell is basically founded on traditions not backed up by biblical scripture or evidence... more or less founded upon paranoia and imagery quite akin to scenes from "dante's inferno." everyone i know in ohio wants to get out... "somewhere warmer" seems to be the consensus. i get it. not unlike hell. but i bet they'll still be saying "I-O" after someone in the distance yells "O-H."

nonetheless, great lakes in cleveland made something fantastic they call christmas ale. i don't know how they did it, but they bottled an adult sort of nostalgia... that makes you wanna be a kid again and see a lot of lights and gifts marked to you and less alcoholic things. anyway... it ushers in all the trappings of this season in a glass. i don't know how you do it, great lakes, but you did. kudos to you. i'm a couple glasses/bottles in, but i think i'll have another. i'll also hang a stocking and hope for that jolly old elf to stuff it. i might even pray that he will! neither of those things will happen, though... but look what you did, christmas ale! you made me wish i was younger and a bit more naive! good work, great lakes. :)

merry christmas. cheers.

-a