Beer Book Review of Don Russell's Christmas Beer

Every year there is one thing that flips the on switch for my Christmas spirit. This year it was reading Don Russell’s book Christmas Beer.

Christmas Beer starts with a dozen or so essays concerned with various aspects of the relationship between the season and beer. In them Russell explores the history of that relationship back to pre-Christian days, the European roots of the traditions we practice all over the world, some of the modern beers such as Samichlaus and Anchor’s Christmas and his personal memories. Russell’s knowledge of beer and affection for the beers of this season are obvious and make for delightful reading.

The next section of the book examines individual Christmas beers. Covering 50 beers and providing a full photo of the beer along with Russell’s tasting notes and comments about the beer this section comprises the bulk of the book. Caution: this section may inspire you to spend FAR more than you were planning to in the beer aisle this year!

The final pages of the book offer a couple of home-brewed Christmas beer recipes and a handful of cooking recipes using beer to spice up the traditional holiday dishes. Finally we’re provided with a holiday beer buying guide, some style notes and other such helpful hints.

While the whole book was a pleasure to read the great joy of it is in the beginning. The Christmas beer essays, where Russell’s voice is least inhibited by structure as it is elsewhere in the book, clearly demonstrates why he is one of America’s favorite beer writers. His writing style draws one into his world of beer filled with equal parts information and anecdotes. The result every time is an entertaining mini-lesson about one or another aspect of beer and, in this case, Christmas.