A Brief History of Beer at Christmas

Gods, Vikings, Victorians, & The Age Old Pre-Cursor To A Christmas Nap

For as long as the world has existed, there is evidence of humankind getting seasonably tiddled…

We’re not just talking about granny having one too many sherries and falling asleep in her turkey dinner. Or the family patriarch tucking thoroughly into his novelty giftpack of pun-based brews in front of The Great Escape. Or even myself and my sister aged 10 years old, smashing through a family box of chocolate liquers convinced the giddiness was due to alcohol intake rather than a copious overload of sugar…

Little were we aware, we were just a part of the ancient tradition of getting piddled at Christmas time.

Pre-Christmas

The tradition of getting seasonally sozzled is so old in fact, it pre-dates Christmas itself. Way before boy’s were being born in barns and an age before the first notes of away in a manger were being tunelessly mangled by primary school shepherds, the ancient Greeks (always the ones to get the party started) had declared it was 5’oclock somewhere. Making offerings and toasting the goddess of the seasons, Demeter, throughout the colder months, to console her while her daughter Persephone was imprisoned in the underworld. In her sadness, Demeter refused all wine, ambrosia, and nectar, instead asking of her devouts, a concoction known as Kykeon.

Kykeon was made of of watered down wine, gently warmed with herbs, spices, honey, barley flour and grated goats cheese, and on the whole sounds pretty gross. However as it’s mentioned in Demeter’s Homeric hymn, it is possibly one of the oldest examples of civilised society seasonally spicing our tipples. (Pumpkin-Spice Latte fans, Praise Demeter!)

Viking Law

Fast forward a few thousand years and the tippled torch is being held high by those pesky Scandinavian marauders, the Vikings. By this point drink of the season is most definitely recognisable as beer and is starting to sound a lot more appealing as a winter warmer than that of Demeter’s temples.

Known as Juleøl (Yule Ale) these beers were brewed with robust grains resulting in very rich, very dark and often eye-wateringly strong ales. These were then flavoured with fruits, cloves, cinnamon becoming even more aligned with flavour profiles we associate with Christmas time. Where at first Juleøl was drank primarily in celebration of the pagan winter solstice, it’s enjoyment and importance outlasted the god’s themselves… where in roughly 920AD King Haakon I is credited with two major shake ups to the Viking way of life;

Firstly the conversion of Norway from Paganism to Christianity. Second, beer was made a legal requirement! Each household was legally bound to brew a strong Juleøl every winter or face fines, taxation and further penalties. Finally a Viking dictator we can all get behind! (at least he’s got my vote!)

To this day almost all Norwegian brewers produce their own version of a Juleøl every year.

God Bless Us Every One

There’s not many folks that did Christmas quite as lavishly as the Victorians, or so Mr Dickens would have you believe. The reality being the Victorians only really got into the swing of Christmas after Charles Dickens gave them a taste for it through his writing of A Christmas Carol, previously a thoroughly religious and pious time reserved for Christian reflection, Dickens borrowed his imagery of lavish feasts and tables brimming with roasted meats, rich stiltons, and plum puddings from a lot of Germanic and Scandinavian culture and of course came with it, the beer.

What better way to cut through the fat and decadence of feasting than a strong, spiced, dark brew, that will have you snoozing in your comfiest chair, adorned in novelty slippers before the first quality street has even been unwrapped!