Best Beer of the Season — Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale
by Wes - January 5th, 2012
Hope everyone is having a great 2012. As I am steering into the new year I keep coming home to find a certain beer in my fridge. The beer is the eponymous Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale, and I am officially nominating it my fave of the season over the perennial favorite, Anchor Steam’s Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Ale.
Lagunitas won out not because it was best in style. Let me make that clear. I think Anchor’s approach was more in line with a seasonal release, but Lagunitas Sucks is just an outstanding beer, bar none. That being said, I have noticed a distinction in interpretation; some folks think it’s an IPA (or even double) and others just call it an American Strong Ale. I like the latter distinction. It’s certainly hoppy, but the malty backbone is not drowned out and the bitterness of those hops is kept in check.
I admit that I also like the backstory of this beer, or at least what Lagunitas has told everyone on the packaging and online. They are a working brewery, they have things lined up in production just-so, and making the typical seasonal Brown Shugga just wasn’t in the cards. That’s where they tripped into opportunity. By not making a big, malty mess of a holiday beer (which I LOVE, btw) they were able to go another way and make something a little unexpected but altogether great.
For the record, I still have both this and the Anchor in my fridge. The difference being that Lagunitas is more generally approachable. And I guess that’s the last winning bit of it. This beer is not so distinct as to make it a “special occasion” beer. I can drink this beer and not be reminded with each sip that “hey, it’s the holidays!” Instead, I can just sip a good beer.
