This post is a part of Sessio, Finnish beer bloggers' monthly posts
on the same topic. The topic is selected by a monthly changing host.
This topic was selected by Helppoa Juotavaa,
who will wrap up the Sessio posts in his blog. I will take part in
Sessio whenever the subject feels nice and I have time to write a post.
This time the session topic - Christmas and beer - is either very easy or very difficult. First I thought was that it's so difficult to get anything written that I'll pass this round. Looking at the final result I guess I should've sticked with that idea.
Quickly I realized that not having anything to write about Christmas and beer makes writing this post easy: it helps to keep the story short. This is possibly the shortest Ölmönger Special post to date and probably will be that for long.
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| A completely random beer pic |
So, why I don't have anything special to say about Christmas and beer or Christmas beers? Here are a couple of reasons:
- I don't fancy seasonal beer. Actually I almost always hate it. Christmas beers suck as much in their genre as Easter, summer, Oktoberfest and Halloween beers do. Probably it's the spices, probably it's something else. Don't know, don't care.
- I don't pair beer with food. I rarely even drink beer with food. Christmas food makes no difference. I know that for some people it's important to have some special Rauchbier with ham, some fruity Saison with turkey, something mild with other traditional Christmas dishes and somethind wild with the dessert. But I don't usually drink beer with food, so why should Christmas make an exception?
- I don't save or select any special beers for Christmas. I don't either have any other yearly scheduled special occasions for having a beer for that moment. Basically, the special moments for special beers are born out of personally important dates or events but I mostly drink all beers - the good, the bad, the ugly, the special - spontaneously, without any other specific reason than having the time and the opportunity to drink a beer.
- I wouldn't feel like missing anything if I don't drink beer - special or at all - or any alcohol during Christmas season. That doesn't mean that I don't usually but there are other, more important things that make my Christmas. Watching The Snowman with the family. Sauna without any hurry. A moment of inner peace. Christmas meal and its preparations. Getting some gifts and seeing the kids' joy when they open their gifts. Playing board and card games. Basically, having some stopped hurryless time with myself and the family. Probably having a glass or dram or two on the way, but not necessarily.
A moment ago, at 11 p.m. on Christmas night I had some sips of Glen Scanlan, blended Scotch received as a gift. And that could've been my alcohol dose of the day. Awful shit, by the way. So I'm on my way for something better now...
Ölbeat
I have a categorical hatred towards Christmas songs. Specially Christmas songs sung in Finnish. Shouldn't come as a shocking surprise to anyone. Well, most of the songs can just be heard too often during the season. This one breaks the rule because it has a real and timeless message about the Christmas season's superficiality - human race creating a period of piece in the world in the middle of war.
Hassisen Kone: On jouluyö, nyt laulaa saa (YouTube)
Published as a single in 1981, the song was written by Ismo Alanko.
