Finally, it’s December. It’s time to do away with restraint and to banish sensibly measured portions. The season of indulgence is here. Stock your larders with mince pies and hefty slabs of stollen – not forgetting the brandy cream of course – and make sure there’s a few measures of pâté in the fridge just in case. It’s time to build up that all-important layer of winter blubber to make these colder months vaguely bearable. See you in January, toes.
It’s also the perfect time to break out some stronger, darker and more decadent beers. If you’re anything like me you’ll have a habit of accumulating imperial stouts and barleywines without even realising it, then forgetting about these and buying more. The great thing about many spiced Christmas beers is that they tend to age rather well, so forgetting them is not too much of a worry.
Bristol’s Wiper and True has been knocking it out of the park this year. From its Kaleidoscope Pale to its Milk Shake Milk Stout to its sublimely delicious Ambers. It’s no surprise then that its seasonal Plum Pudding Porter is a Christmas cracker.
The foundations of this beer are everything you’d expect in a great porter. There’s a hint of sweet tobacco smoke and leather on the nose, which are a precursor to notes of bitter dark chocolate that lead to a palate-cleansingly bitter finish. There’s more though - this is a Christmas beer after all, so indulgence is fundamental to its existence.
Additions of dried fruit, cinnamon and lemon zest complete the recipe, adding notes of stewed figs, winter spice and hints of lemon in the bitter finish to the already heady mélange of flavours. Drink immediately and pair with a mince pie or two, or stash it away for next year - as I said earlier, spiced beers always have a habit of evolving and improving with a little age on them.
Whenever you choose to open it though, you can be certain that it will enhance your Christmas spirit a hundredfold.
You can find more from beer writer Matthew Curtis as UK editor of Good Beer Hunting and on Twitter @totalcurtis. Pick up a bottle of Wiper and True Plum Pudding Porter in store or online.
