Jon Abernathy of The Brew Site asked me to join in and place one beer on his Advent calendar this Christmas season. Well, as Jon is I think the only pure beer blogger who may well have been posting longer than I have who am I to say no? I posted my first beer blog post on this stand alone beer blog around Monday 25 October 2004 while his site went back to June. Here is a post from Jon the next day as he finds A Good Beer Blog as he looks throughout an empty internet for other beer blogs. My post was also about hunting out beer sites.

So Yuletide beer, eh? I wrote about a favorite almost two years ago now and I expect it would be a beer that could warm the heart of even the meanest anti-baby activist:

Light chestnut-caramel ale under the fine tan rim and foam. Pumpernickel and line scented. In the mouth, this is a really interesting ale with the thyme giving a real roast of lamb effect. A beer that begs to soak a wee sheep's leg as much as a hefeweizen begs to meet pork. Nutty malt with brown sugar richness and a very distinct but balanced thyme presence...pungent even. The coriander is more of a counterpoint, however much it is there in the nose. This beer could match a strong hard cheese well, too, like aged gouda but maybe not anything blue unless it came out of a sheep. Or roast parsnips. It would go with roast parsnips.

You have no idea how angry it makes me that I don't have a lifetime's store of this beer laid up in the basement - or at lease a deal with Brasserie D'Achouffe that sees two cases show up every December 18th. Life's tragedy summarized right there. Anyway, happy Christmas and a merry New Year to you all.