Christmas in California (or Carolina)

Some end-of-year seasonals for your Twixt-mas reading, courtesy of the good folk at Sierra Nevada.

Ho ho ho, it's Holiday Haze first, a 6.5% ABV IPA that's a translucent yellow colour with a dusting of snowy bubbles on top. The aroma is very Christmas tree, and I don't know if that's deliberate: sweet pine with a warming nutmeg and clove spice behind. (I should probably disclose that I'm drinking this a little over a week ago, having just finished the Christmas shopping and am very much in a Festive Mood.) The spices more than the pine lead the flavour, and there's a very witbier-like mix of coriander and orange. The bitterness is therefore zesty, dare I say summery? This is further softened by a syrupy orangeade sweetness which I'm guessing is a nod to New England. It's not very convincing. On mature reflection this isn't especially Christmassy after all, and it lacks Sierra Nevada's signature west-coast hop kick. It's decent though: easy drinking with very little sign of all that alcohol. It's one you could have a few of.

The rather more bluntly titled Coffee Stout is only a little weaker at 6.2% ABV. Despite the caffeine it pours slowly and lazily, needing a bit of altitude to form a head properly. That gloopiness pays off in the mouthfeel: it's rich and silky, like a fine Belgian praline. Actually, chocolate is much more part of the flavour than coffee, bouncing between that praline nuttiness and a sterner, cocoa-driven flaky bitterness. The coffee is mostly present in the aroma wafting out subtly, burntness accompanied by sweeter wafer biscuit. So far it sounds like just another coffee stout; you have to wait for the finish to catch the best feature. Here's there's an unexpected echo of fruit: raisin primarily, with a little cherry essence too. It's not much but it gives the beer a tasty extra dimension. This is highly enjoyable, and ideal winter drinking when you're not hitting the double-digit-percentage mad stuff.

Both of these feel to me like a grown-up brewer doing slightly silly styles to follow modern beer fashion. The quality shines though, however. No wrong turns, no bum notes, and nothing half-hearted. Just the quality you'd expect.