Make Your Holidays Jollier

The holiday season means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It’s a time of remembrance; a time to reunite with loved ones; a time to pause and reflect on the year. It’s also a great time to pamper yourself and shower those closest to you in gifts—and imbibe in local, warming elixirs!

Redstone Meadery’s Vanilla Beans and Cinnamon Sticks Mountain Honey Wine
There’s a great deal of beauty in the silence and stark landscapes that accompany the winter months, but it’s still a little heartbreaking having to turn back the clocks and watch the last bit of sun fade away before we’ve even left work. After scraping ice from your car’s windows and driving halfway home before your heater kick in, it’s a relief arriving to a warm home. But no adult beverage says “comforts of home” like this 12 percent metheglin style mead from Boulder’s Redstone Meadery. The cinnamon and vanilla spices balance perfectly against the Alfalfa and Wildflower honeys, and while it’s incredibly drinkable cold or at room temperature, its true beauty shines when warmed atop the stove and served as a local—and some might say superior—substitute for mulled wine. Picture yourself with a mug of warm mead, a burning fire and one of your favorite books. Relaxation at its finest.

Bookcliff Vineyard’s Flagstaff Star Wine ’13
Whether you’re a Boulder resident or just passing through, it’s always a sure sign that the holidays are upon us when you look to the mountains and see the Flagstaff Star shining over the city. First erected in 1947 as a Christmas decoration, the star has seen many incarnations over the years, as well as its fair share of controversy and vandalism.
For ten years of those years, Boulder’s Bookcliff Vineyards has shown their support for the star by bottling their eponymously named Flagstaff Star Wine in its honor and donating a dollar from all bottle purchases to the star’s annual fund—this year helping to cover the cost of the season-long utility bill.
This year’s bottling of the Flagstaff Star Wine features their 2010 Ensemble, a gold medal winner at the 2012 Governor’s Cup wine competition, making it a perfect choice when hosting anything from a small-scale cocktail hour to a full-sized dinner party.

Crooked Stave Hop Savant
It’s no surprise that champagne has become the official beverage of worldwide celebration. Its soft taste and effervescent mouthfeel appeal to a wide range of palates—and, really, come midnight, who doesn’t love uncorking an overflowing bottle on New Year’s Eve?
Try a Belgo-American-inspired Brettanomyces Pale Ale aged in oak foeders and dry-hopped with Galaxy hops? Yeah, that just happened. One of the newest releases from Denver’s Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, the beer itself, Hop Savant, is actually brewed year round. However, the brewery keeps us on our toes by adding different hop varietals in the dry-hopping process.
Available in 375-milliliter bottles, you might need a couple of these bad boys to share with friends, but trust us, the spritzy carbonation and citrusy tropical fruit-like flavors of this beer will win over a crowd of any size.

Jesse Brookstein is the packaging technician at Avery Brewing Co.