When it comes to tracing the origins of Christmas beers, I usually look to three main traditions. The first, and relatively newest, is typified by the “winter IPAs” from American craft brewers, largely inspired by Celebration IPA from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Then there is the winter warmer style, inspired by the malty strong ales of England, such as Jubelale from Deschutes Brewery.

Finally, there are the strong, spiced bières de Noël of Belgium. Similar to their English counterparts, Belgian brewers crafted special ales for the holidays as a “thank you” to their loyal customers. Unlike the English, Belgians have no compunction about flavoring their beers with anything and everything — sugars, fruits, herbs and spices. For the holidays, they brewed strong, flavorful ales infused with the gamut of holiday spices and more.

Bend’s own Belgian-inspired brewery, Monkless Belgian Ales, carries on this tradition with Friar’s Festivus, a Belgian-style dark strong ale (sometimes also called a quadruple) spiced with mace and cardamom.

“The goal with Friar’s Festivus was twofold: first, to brew a winter seasonal that was truly unique and stood apart in the PNW; secondly, to brew a winter seasonal that was consistent with Belgian brewing tradition — big and dark with a spice presence,” owner and head brewer Todd Clement told me in 2018.

“With those objectives in mind, I wanted to go outside the box from the spice perspective and use spices that were a bit out of the ordinary for a traditional Belgian Noel yet ones that we felt represented the holiday season.”

I reached out to Clement recently to find out if the beer had changed since that time.

“Mace and cardamom are the only two spices we use. I did increase the mace slightly this year as I felt the mace character was lacking some in the 2020 release,” he said via email.

The recipe for Friar’s Festivus incorporates sugar, typical of Belgian beers, which helps to boost the strength while drying out the body, as well as adding color. “We use two sugars in the boil — a simple cane sugar and a Belgian dark candi syrup (very dark),” said Clement. Those sugars help to boost its strength to 10.2% alcohol by volume. 30 IBUs provide just enough balancing bitterness to keep it from becoming syrupy sweet.

Additional complexity is achieved through the use of two yeast strains for fermentation, Monkless’ house witbier strain and one of its two house abbey strains.

I tried this year’s version to reacquaint myself with the style. Friar’s Festivus looks terrific in the glass, pouring a dark brown color with a deep garnet red hue, and a creamy, light tan-colored head of foam. The aroma is deep and complex, with raisins, prunes, dark cherry and other sugary dark dried fruits emanating from the rich malts. There are notes of turbinado sugar, cherry pits and hints of spices that give it an almost fruitcake-like quality.

The first sip starts with a cola-like flavor with caramelized sugar, spicy, clovey Belgian yeast character, cherry bark, dried fruit syrup, caramel and sugar brittle.

There are hints of almond, and it’s nicely sweet with dark sugar notes that are reminiscent of sugar cookies, but it’s not cloying. It has a creamy, rounded body that finishes dry.

Overall, it’s easy to drink yet seems indulgent and decadent. With its strength it’s also a terrific beer to share. It would be well suited to pairing with your Christmas dinner — or, even better, dessert, particularly anything rich and spicy.

When you pick up some Friar’s Festivus for the holidays, you’ll be sipping on Belgian tradition with this special “thank you” from Monkless to you.

Top 5 beers of the week

Jubelale — Deschutes Brewery

Darker Daze Black IPA — Wild Ride Brewing

Santa’s Private Reserve — Rogue Ales

Vanilla Bean Pear Cider — Avid Cider

Christmas Ale — Anchor Brewing