A few years ago, when we talked about Christmas beers, it was primarily about imported beers. From the Belgian Bush Noël Santa Claus beer to one of the most famous, the Delirium Christmas brown ale from the East Flanders Huyghe brewery, to the excellent Mönchshof Weihnachtsbier double bock. Since then, the situation has taken a fortunate turn, thanks to Hungarian craft breweries, and a good number of beers are now made locally for the holidays, from Fót to Kiskunhalas and from Csepel to Békésszentandrás. Hungarian brewers have delighted connoisseurs with a variety of treats. Just to name a few: Fót's Winternacht, Békésszentandrás' Esthajnal, Rizmájer Christmas Beer.
End-of-year beer specialties are generally not cheap. For example, Samichlaus Classic, brewed since 1979 – originally by the Swiss Hürliman brewery, and since 2000 by the Austrian Eggenberg brewery – was considered the world's strongest beer for a long time with its 14% alcohol content, and it costs around $20. Of course, most of them don't require you to shell out that much; you can get a bottle for 500-1000 Hungarian Forints at specialty stores or online retailers. We found a Hungarian webshop while "surfing" that already offers 19 different Christmas options, from Bavik brewery's 9% Petrus Winter to Antwerp's 10.5% Duboisson Carulus Christmas. Many of them are available in 7.5-ounce eye-catching, latched bottles. You can confidently place them under the Christmas tree for beer lovers, or even in Santa's sack, just be careful, they say he enjoys beer too.