Southern Tier Krampus Review

Name: Southern Tier Krampus
Style: Imperial Helles Lager
ABV: 9%

In honor of the upcoming holidays, I will be looking at Krampus from Southern Tier Brewing, which is their winter seasonal release. What's a Krampus, you ask? According the German tradition, the Krampus is the counterpart to St. Nicholas and is described as being half-goat/half-demon.

While St. Nicholas rewards good children with presents, the Krampus rewards the bad children by whipping them with rods and rusty chains. According to legend, the Krampus will sometimes kidnap, eat and/or take the really bad children with him to hell. And you thought a lump of coal was scary idea as a kid.

Krampus pours a dark orange color with some mild visible carbonation. The head takes on a nice, white foamy appearance with some pretty good lacing.

Starting out in the aroma, I'm getting some fairly strong pale maltiness which is paired with an almost-as-strong hop profile of citrus & bitter hops. I'm also picking up on some boozy notes here too.

As for the taste, there is some fairly prominent pale malt and toffee sweetness up front. This is followed up by some mild roasted barley notes & strong bitter and citra hoppiness. The aftertaste is made of a bitter hoppiness and light booziness.

I think Krampus is a pretty good beer and a nice change of pace compared to other seasonal styles out on the market during the winter season. On top of that, it's very reasonably priced so be sure to pick this up should you get the chance.

Southern Tier Krampus - 8.5/10