The darker the beer, the warmer it should be served, is a good rule of thumb.
Beer goes great with Christmas dishes, and there is a fairly fair and varied selection of Christmas beers in stores.
– Beer definitely belongs on the Finnish Christmas table. Finland is a traditional country of beer and beer is preferred because the euros from beer production stay in Finland, says CEO and brewmaster of Tornion Panimo Kaj Kostiander.
– Traditionally, Christmas beers are dark and full-bodied, but fortunately there is so much on offer that you can find your own beer for every dish if you wish. So you should feel free to try different beers, Kostiander urges.
Since Christmas beers are mostly dark, it means that the beers should be cooled just a little. The main rule is that the darker and stronger the beer, the warmer it should be served. So don’t fall for the common mistake and chill dark beers until they are refrigerator cold.
Cool as follows, unless otherwise instructed in the product:
- Trappist and monastery beers: 14–16 degrees
- Ales, dark lagers, Christmas beers, bocks, porters and stouts: 10–14 degrees
- Pale lagers, light beers, wheat beers, flavored beers and fruit beers: 8–10 degrees
- Non-alcoholic beers: 8–10 degrees
A long slate of novelties
There are several new Christmas beers in stores for those who want a change. We introduced a few options suitable for Christmas dishes:
Tornion Panimon Joulu Ale is a mahogany-brown malt beer, lightly flavored with vanilla. The beer is only served slightly chilled, so that the aromas can be best brought out.
Hartwall’s new Lahti Erikois Jouluolut is almost black, a surface yeast beer that works especially well with cheeses and chocolates.
There are plenty of novelties for the Christmas table. Manufacturers
Nokian Panimon’s Keisari Savulager is a dark lager made from smoked malts.
Sinebrychoff’s novelty Karhu Stout is not exactly a Christmas beer, but it is dark and full-bodied and fits well with the Christmas table.
This Christmas, Olvi brought the non-alcoholic A.Le Coq beer to the market, which is a roasted and malty dark porter-type Christmas beer. Beer is served at 10–14 degrees.
The story was originally published on 20 December 2022.