Friday 24 December 2010

The ninth beer of Christmas

De Dolle Stille Nacht


It was Christmas eve,
 and not a creature was stirring,
not even our friends the yeast...


Stille Nacht translates as silent night, the ultimate Christmas Eve beer from those crazy folks at De Dolle, Belgium. Last year I remember opening a recent bottling of this and thinking it could probably be better with a bit more age on it. So this year I'm opening one from a 2008 bottling.

A good beer despite some fobbing from this bottle. Amber shaded, loads of carbonation, and what I get most from this beer is a kind of  orange zest and marmalade like character. Once the carbonation dies down a bit it unveils itself. Sweet candy, summer fruit and spice with boozy alcohols in the finish. Surprisingly light bodied for the 12% abv, which should sort you out for getting to sleep with all that excitement.

Anyhow, time to get set in for the night. The snow is falling outside (no exaggeration, it really is snowing!) and the last I checked it was 453 minutes till Christmas (according to Helen's 'Santa lite' iphone app), that sure ain't long. But if you can't wait for the big day, you can always see how old Santa's doing by tracking him here. Have a good one.

2 comments:

Ed said...

You're settling in? I'll be having my dinner and then I'm going down the pub. Mind you, looks like I may be staying in on new years eve.

Rob said...

Thats right Ed. The wife is doing a gammon joint which I'm pairing with a Rauchbeer Doppelbock then I'm getting an early night for some early present opening.