A COLD beer with Christmas lunch is quintessentially as Australian as eating leftover ham while watching the Boxing Day Test or peeling a bucket of prawns beside the pool.
Every year the choice of festive brews gets more mind-boggling as craft beer continues to grow in popularity and diversity.
So we've asked some of the Hunter's top brewers what they'll be sipping this Christmas.
FOGHORN
When it comes to beer, there aren't many people more knowledgeable in the Hunter than FogHorn's Shawn Sherlock. For him, Trappist ales at Christmas are a must.
"I use it as an excuse to get a few ones from Belgium in, stuff I can't usually afford to treat myself with any other time of the year," Sherlock says.
"Anything from the Trappist breweries in particular, and being summer, it tends to be the paler ones like Belgian tripels."
Sherlock is also a fan of Marrickville brewery Wildflower's wild ferments and the Bohemian Ale from Method.
GOOD FOLK
Good Folk co-owner John Elsley says the Danny's Wedge Tropical Pale Ale is his favourite Christmas beer.
"The great thing about having a brewery is you only need to drink your own beer," Elsley laughs.
There's so much love for Good Folk's flagship beer that they've created the 9.5 per cent double-hopped Double Danny's.
GRAINFED
For Grainfed's Lachlan MacBean Christmas night calls for a Belgian strong dark ale like Chimay Bleue. The world famous ale was first brewed for Christmas in 1948.
"I normally buy a bottle of Chimay blue or red and later in the evening with a Christmas pudding it goes really well," MacBean says.
Closer to home, MacBean expects his flagship Sneaky One, Two Degrees Hazy and the newly-canned Over The Ditch NZ Pilsner to be popular with summer drinkers.
"It's a bit darker than your German or Czech pilsner," he says of Over The Ditch. "We use Nelson Sauvin hops and Motueka hops for that pine-needle character."
IRONBARK HILL
"I like to stick to light-bodied pale ales so I can enjoy myself without getting too silly," IronBark Hill's Andrew Drayton says.
However, there's usually room somewhere for one of the Pokolbin brewery's Indies gold medal-winning Black Forest Stouts - brewed with fresh berries and dark chocolate.
"It's Christmas in a glass, really," he says.
IronBark Hill is building the festive spirit by launching a pilot batch next week of a 5.5 per cent Christmas pumpkin spice beer.
"It has roasted pumpkins and when we've brewed it we've infused them into the boil with some cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg," Drayton says.
MODUS
Modus' Grant Wearin will be "drinking for the farmers" by downing a few of Modus' popular Mexican-style Cerveza.
The Merewether brewery is donating $1 to charity Rural Aid for every carton of the all-Australian Cerveza sold.
But "as things get a little looser into the night" Wearin plans to treat himself to Modus' limited release Pump Up The Jams doughnut pastry sour collaboration with Newcastle bakery Doughheads.
Hazys also continue to be popular at Modus. The brewery is about to release a 6.5 per cent Noisy Boy Hazy IPA, which uses a new type of hop dosing.
"It's meant to intensify the aromatic side of the beer," Gearin says.
SHOUT
At Christmas time Shout brewer Jake Gardiner seeks out the latest special releases from Wildflower.
"We often go a bit wild and get some wild ferment beers from Wildflower from Sydney or some La Sirène beers [from Melbourne] which come in the big champagne bottles," Gardiner says.
Gardiner has also been busy brewing up several summer releases for Shout, including the return of their 3.5 per cent Lilly Pilly Sour, sourced from fruit grown in Mayfield, and the new hazy extra pale ale collaboration, Wheat Around The Bush, with Cattleyard Brewing.
THIRSTY MESSIAH
For the past five years whenever Christmas rolls around, Thirsty Messiah's Thomas Delgatto heads to The International Beer Collector to indulge in Belgian ales.
The International Beer Collector imports a vast range of international beers, which are difficult to source in Australia.
"There's a caramel fudge stout that he's got at the moment which I'm gonna get a keg and put on," Delgatto says.
At Thirsty Messiah's Broadmeadow brewpub, the Pacific Ale is proving popular at Christmas parties.
"I'd go through half a dozen corny kegs (19 litres) per week," Delgatto says.
