Famous North Yorkshire brewery promises 'Christmas in a glass' with its festive beer

Iconic Yorkshire Brewery T&R Theakston has announced the relaunch of Theakston Christmas Ale.

A 4.7% ABV red ale, it’s brewed with a range of natural ingredients, including pale, crystal and dark malts, and a grist of traditional English hops including Target, Challenger and Progress.

The beer has been brought back by popular demand, ten years after it played a starring role in a Christmas episode of American TV crime drama NCIS: Los Angeles.

Boasting quintessentially festive flavours of raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg and walnut, the beer pairs perfectly with Christmas dinner favourites, including strong cheese, British beef and the traditional Christmas pudding.

Simon Theakston, joint managing director at Theakston Brewery, said: “Christmas is a special time and it deserves a special beer, which this most certainly is.

"Best enjoyed with family and friends in front of a roaring fire, Theakston Christmas Ale truly is the essence of Christmas.

"We’ve even heard it described as Christmas pudding in a glass.

“After the fictional Christmas Ale was broadcast across the world 10 years ago, we were inundated with calls from customers asking where they could purchase their own.

"In response to this demand, we decided to create the real thing, which has been helping our customers to get in the Christmas spirit every year since.”

The tasty festive tipple is now available in a selection of pubs until the end of December.

In the episode of NCIS: Los Angeles, operations manager Hetty Lange is seen knocking a tap into the end of a wooden cask, before saying: “This is Theakston’s Christmas Ale, flown all the way from Yorkshire in England, and brewed like it was in Charles Dickens’s time.”

Established in Masham, North Yorkshire in 1827, Theakston Brewery, with nearly 200 years of brewing expertise, is one of the UK’s oldest and most highly regarded traditional ale brewers.

Operating as an independent brewer, it is the second largest of its kind under family control in the entire UK.

To stock Theakston Christmas Ale on your bar, email [email protected]