Tis the season to be jolly—and what could make anyone happier than slugging back a few brewskis with the family while home for the holidays? This chilly season there are more options in your local grocery store or BevMo. Instead of reaching for your usual case of Blue Ribbon, splurge a bit, and purchase a pack of holiday flavored beer. This season, breweries have concocted a medley of holiday ales ranging from chocolate to pumpkin spice. While sitting around the dinner table this ________ (enter whatever winter holiday your family lovingly celebrates), pop open a few bottles and enjoy (or despise) the taste of these creatively infused alcoholic beverages. You and your family may be delightfully or disgustingly surprised, depending on how eclectic your taste buds may be.

In a trial run, five holiday beers were reviewed by a panel of drastically different taste buds. The merry taste test included: Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Cookie Stout, Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout, Belgian Kriek Cranberry Malt Beer, Rogue Chocolate Stout and a Kennenbunk Pumpkin Port ale. The taste testers ranged in age from twenty-one to sixty-five, Christmas and Chanukah celebrators alike, so as not to be biased. It was agreed by the panel that the stout beers tasted like a typical stout—Guinness was the closest comparison. The oatmeal and cappuccino flavors did not shine through the dark, bitter taste of the beers. The chocolate beer’s taste could be detected on the tongue, but what sane or sober person would want to taste chocolate in a port ale? Save the chocolate beer as your last resort. If you must intoxicate yourself to spare your ears from Grandpa and Grandma’s duet of Silent Night, pick up a bottle of the pumpkin spice or cranberry ale. The pumpkin and cranberry beers are much lighter in flavor and color, which will sit better in your tummy alongside mom’s casserole and good old granny’s cottage cheese Jell-O mold. The cranberry malt beer would be a great trade-off instead of trying to stomach grandpa’s burnt pumpkin pie. If he questions you, tell him you’re watching your calorie intake.

If being with the family for over twenty-four hours is too much to bear, sneak out for a few hours and meet your friends at a local joint. Breweries such as Samuel Adams are making kegs this holiday season for bars to put on tap. The most likely place to find your winter choice of ale would be a local dive bar. But who doesn’t love their local hole in the wall to sit back and have a Bud with friends in the absence of family drama? Whatever holiday beer you choose to indulge in this season, cheers, and please drink responsibly.