For the second week in a row, a beer from Victory Brewing enjoys the spotlight here at The No Seatbelt Blog, for this special Christmas edition of The Beer List. Unfortunately, my first choice for this episode was White Christmas from Sam Adams, but I have been searching in vain to find it this year, and I ran out of time to write this review as scheduled. I wanted to find a Christmas or winter-themed beer, and those are obviously easy to come by during this time of year, and the good news is, I found just that in Victory’s Winter Cheers. 

I just discovered this beer in my search, and am trying it for the first time. Winter Cheers is a hefeweizen designed for the winter months, offering a great balance of citrus fruits, banana (I’m always OK with this) cloves, spices and wheat to the taste. Many wheat beers employ the combination of citrus fruits and various spices, which if done in harmony, provide a beautiful explosion of flavor. I’m a big fan of wheat beers, as they’re one of the primary reasons I would rather throw myself into traffic than ever go gluten-free. The brew contains German wheat, and a one-two punch of whole-flower hops which help to deliver a respectable 6.7% alcohol-by-volume level, which will certainly warm you up on a cold night.

Victory Brewing nailed the spirit of the noble wheat beer, as well as the spirit of the season with Winter Cheers, and this will be a good one to keep around for the impending deep freeze that will inevitably envelop the Garden State before long. Located in Pennsylvania, Victory has a great selection of beers, many of which can be found all year in the Tri-State area.

Stay tuned each day from now until Christmas for a new blog, and for another review for The Beer List next Sunday! Merry Christmas to you all!