Pheasantry Brewery Merry Christmas IPA Beer Review

Ho ho ho and all that. OK so I'm a day late to the party with this one, but it only turned up in my stocking yesterday so here we are on boxing day discussing Pheasantry Breweries Merry Christmas IPA. I guess there's nothing like milking the festive season for all its worth, and Pheasantry are far from the first brewery to create a beer purely to sell as a stocking filler. Also in fairness to them the Nottinghamshire brewery are one of my favourites, and been based just outside Newark they are only a stones throw away from my home town of Lincoln. If you ever make it out in Lincoln, Newark or Nottingham you'll probably find a few of their beers on tap, with the Best Bitter and Pale Ale been the most regularly available, although not surprisingly where I come from the Lincoln Tank Ale also shows up periodically.  Pheasantry have been brewing away since 2012 so they're pretty new to the game, but they're certainly making a good name for themselves around these parts. But is their Merry Christmas IPA going to ensure you have a tasty Christmas?

I'll start by saying I really don't consider an IPA to be a Christmas beer, you want something dark and filling really to get through the bleak winter nights, like a good wholesome stout or winter warmer, but nevertheless here we are and I'm going to try not to hold it against the beer. Merry Christmas IPA comes in a nice and festive red labelled bottle, which certainly looks the part. At 5% alcohol it's just about enough to warm you up, but you'll still need your hot water bottle. The beer pours a very lively yellowy gold, with a large foamy white as snow head. It's a little darker than you're average IPA, but it's a good looking beer.

The aroma is a very pleasant mixture of citrus fruits and hops, there's also quite a heavy malt smell, which in my experience is a little unusual for an IPA. There's certainly enough going on with the smell to imply there's something different happening here, what there isn't though is anything festive. When you have a winter warmer it just smells of Christmas, this smells like a malty IPA you'd drink on a warm September afternoon. I guess you kind of have to forget that the beer is called Merry Christmas IPA and just take it for what it is. 

The taste similarly lacks any real Christmas vibe. There's still plenty of citrus, mainly orange, plenty of hops, and quite a generous malty bitter taste. It all sounds a bit muddled, but it actually blends together quite nicely, with no single taste running away with the party. I'm not much of an IPA fan, but I really like this beer. Because none of the flavours dominate completely it's really smooth and easy to drink. I often find IPA's leave an overly fruity aftertaste but there's none of that here. I'm going to give Merry Christmas IPA by Pheasantry Brewery a very good 7.5 out of 10. It might have made it up to an 8 if it actually made sense as a Christmas beer, but to my mind it's more of a late summer treat.