I was beginning to get worried. It seemed that, no matter how hard I looked, I just couldn’t find Three Taverns Feest Noel in the bottle. This is the holiday beer from the highly acclaimed (by me) Three Taverns brewery of Decatur, Georgia and was released in winter of 2013 as a draft-only brew. This winter, it was released both on tap and in 750ML bottles in November.

That’s all well and good, but as I went on vacation into the first week of December I couldn’t find it anywhere. Luckily, my local growler shop here in Canton came to the rescue. Stout’s Growlers offered up Feest Noel and I snapped up a 32-ounce fill faster than you can say Feest Noel.

Three Taverns focuses on Belgian inspired beers and Feest Noel is their version of a Christmas spiced quadruple ale. Here’s their take on it from their website:

Merriment is a hallmark of the holiday season, seasoning our greetings and our gatherings. Feest Noel is merriment in a glass- a spiced Christmas ale meant to evoke joy and mystery. This Belgian-style quadrupel uses dark roasted malts, imported Belgian dark candy sugar, and spiced accents of cardamom, allspice and cloves.

Three Taverns Feest Noel has an alcohol content of 10% by volume and 30 IBUs. I paid $9.75 for a 32-ounce growler fill at Stout’s.

Three Taverns Feest Noel pours to a beautiful burnt mahogany color with a thin whispy head formation and a luscious nose of spice and dark malt. Taking a sip, the beer is complex and flavorful, malty with toasted nuts and subtle chocolate, buttered cinnamon toast suggestions, fruity with dark plummy notes, and very, very spicy. Cardamaon, nutmeg, cinnamon, anise are all here and they dry in the finish along with a big alcohol warmth.

Three Taverns calls this a quad but it has the dark nutty maltiness of a dubbel at the strength of a tripel. However you peg it, it is delicious and truly a festive holiday brew indeed. I have a new holiday favorite it would seem, and I truly enjoyed gently pulling on this beer over the course of a chilly late fall evening.

Update 12/26/2019: Somewhwere around the house, I have a 750ML bottle of Feest Noel I need top drink. It's been aging a few years and I am indeed curious to see how that affects this marvelous brew. I did, however, pick up a 4-pack of bottles for $10.45 at Target on Christmas Eve. The beer pours to a dark brown color with a light head of foam and nose rich with clove and plums. Taking a sip, the beer is decadent with chocolate and plum dark fruit, then so much spice; it's rich malty, the cloves are rather heavy and the cardamom less so, the allspice pungent, then the beer finishes warm with alcohol and drying with spice. Simply wonderful, and a true Christmas favorite here.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

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