Personally, I blame Starbucks. Pumpkin beers existed well before their pumpkin spice latte, but post-PSL, we’ve been inundated with Autumn spice-bomb beers. Classic spiced Christmas beers are hardly better: add clove to the pie spice and you’ve just jumped from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
It’s not that I hate cinnamon or any of the other spices involved. The problem is that brewers let the spices overpower the beer. I’ve even tasted stouts that might as well be black holiday potpourri. Extending the palette can help -- chile heat adds a welcome distraction -- but it’s difficult to mask the cookie cutter sameness of these beers.
If you want to brew in honor of the holidays, don’t contribute to the problem. Instead, consider the flavors and the feelings of the season. Here are a set of ideas that you can mix and match to create your own tradition.