T&R Theakston has announced the relaunch of its Christmas Ale, a 4.7% ABV red ale brewed with pale, crystal, and dark malts, and a grist of traditional English hops, including Target, Challenger, and Progress.
Boasting quintessentially festive flavours of raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and walnut, the beer pairs perfectly with Christmas dinner favourites, including strong cheese, British beef, and the traditional Christmas pudding, says the brewer.
The beer has been brought back by popular demand, ten years after it played a starring role in a Christmas episode of American crime drama NCIS: Los Angeles. In the episode, operations manager Hetty Lange is seen knocking a tap into the end of a wooden cask, before saying: “This is Theakston’s Christmas Ale, flown all the way from Yorkshire in England, and brewed like it was in Charles Dickens’s time.”
The festive tipple is currently available in a selection of pubs until the end of December.
Simon Theakston, joint managing director at Theakston Brewery, said: “Christmas is a special time and it deserves a special beer, which this most certainly is. Best enjoyed with family and friends in front of a roaring fire, Theakston Christmas Ale truly is the essence of Christmas. We’ve even heard it described as Christmas pudding in a glass!
“After the fictional Christmas Ale was broadcast across the world ten years ago, we were inundated with calls from customers asking where they could purchase their own. In response to this demand, we decided to create the real thing, which has been helping our customers to get in the Christmas spirit every year since.”
