A beer brewed with herbs or spices added beyond hops — ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, anise, rosemary, juniper, coriander, allspice, orange peel, and many others. Typically 4–10% ABV. The spice character should be identifiable, well-integrated with the base beer, and balanced so no single spice dominates unnaturally. Common expressions include winter warmers (heavy spice over a malty amber or brown base) and historical recreations (ginger, juniper, gruit). Distinct from Fruit Beer, Pumpkin Beer, Chili Pepper Beer, Coffee Beer, and Chocolate Beer, each of which is a separate catalog category.
In the glass
Origin
Flavoring beer with herbs and spices predates the widespread use of hops, when brewers reached for gruit — a mixture of herbs that served as the main bittering and flavoring agent in medieval European brewing — before hops displaced most herbal bittering. The spicing tradition lived on most visibly in festive winter beers. An old English Christmas drink called lambswool was made with roasted apples, nutmeg, ginger, and honey, its name drawn from the froth floating on top, and it belongs to the same family as wassail, the mulled drink shared while caroling through the holidays. Today’s Christmas and winter ales tend to build on old ale, strong ale, and barley wine, warmed with cinnamon, coriander, orange, and similar spices. In the United States, the modern interest in spiced holiday beer was kindled by Anchor Brewing’s “Our Special Ale,” first released in 1975 and brewed to a different secret spice recipe every year. The category also takes in some of the strongest beers in the world, among them Samichlaus, a rich 14% doppelbock first brewed at Hürlimann in Switzerland and, after that brewery’s closure, revived in Austria at Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg, where it is still made.
Notes
The spice character should be identifiable and well-integrated, with no single spice — cinnamon, clove, or ginger especially — overwhelming the base beer. The category is broad: winter warmers layer heavy spice over a malty amber or brown base, while historical recreations revisit ginger, juniper, and gruit. There is deliberately no fixed recipe, which has long made the holiday version a showcase for a brewer’s own blend. Ginger has its own deep lineage here: ginger beer began as a British creation of the mid-18th century, made with ginger root and sugar, and survives today both as a soft drink and as a flavoring craft brewers add to hopped wort for a spicy, warming heat. The style is kept distinct from Fruit Beer, Pumpkin Beer, Chili Pepper Beer, Coffee Beer, and Chocolate Beer. Belgian witbier, though spiced with coriander and orange peel, is filed under witbier because those spices are definitional to that historical style rather than an added flourish.
Defining examples
Anchor Christmas Ale·Young’s Winter Warmer·Great Lakes Christmas Ale·Goose Island Christmas Ale·St. Bernardus Christmas Ale