I love winter time in beer land. More so than any other season, brewers seem compelled to pull out all their tricks and come up with new and fun beer concoctions. And because its so cold for most of America, they tend to be on the darker side, which of course makes Frosty a happy boy. Ninkasi’s winter brew, Sleigh’r, is no exception. Now, yes, I’ve been hard on Ninkasi in the past, but to be fair all their beer is just so damn hoppy. Imbued with all the narcissism only a guy with a beer review blog can have, I’ll go ahead and claim that they heard my cries, and have decided to make a brew truly worthy of my lofty praise. Either that, or they just mined the stream of awesome brewing they’ve always had. And struck gold, they have.

Sleigh’r is a Dark Double Alt, and its does its style proud. Super dark, super malty, and super yum. It has the great distinction of being one of the few 22′s I look forward to drinking straight through, regardless of the drunken consequences. As I froze my tukus off putting up Christmas lights the other weekend, just the thought that it was in the fridge warmed my bones.

It won’t be around long, so for those of you with a sense of taste (skylark: Alameda Papa Noel a 1? Come on…), pick some up, ditch the egg nog, and make Santa proud.