Christmas beers...in October?

I am not one to complain about the creep but IMO October feels a lot closer to Xmas than May/June feels to pumpkin time. That's probably the source of many complaints. By the time I'm truly in the mood for fall beers, winter beers are already hitting.

 

I've never seen a problem with this. Good beer has no season.

 

I can't think of any May/June pumpkins either but I still think July (which I definitely saw this year) is way too early for pumpkin. I won't be surprised if more (not sure if anyone does already?) start having it year round.

 

Its cold outside. 40° so the winter warmers are fine by me.

 

Also because Christmas is the biggest holiday but come December 26, its gone. So i think its the holidays own hype too. Unlike the fall season.

 

I like my winter warmers with a couple months on them for whatever reason (usually to drop the heat and spice, come to think of it), but hey. It's 60 in my apartment without the heat on, and we had our first frost warning last night. I'll take a winter warmer.

 

Didn't see the weather but i can see my breath outside. It says 58° but feels colder. Frost in the mornings already.

Little egg harbor. Right along the water to the Great Bay by Atlantic City.

 

I would drink SN Celebration all year long whereas I drink 1-2 pumpkin beers and that's enough for all year..

 

Look forward to the 'seasonal' beers. But by the time January rolls around, I'm ready for a do-nothing month.

 

I think it is a combination of things:

1) Once it is cold enough, these beers work well.
2) They don't seem as out of place as Oktoberfests and Pumpkins in early August plus...
3) Oktoberfests and Pumpkins are big volume sellers, and if you don't get what you want when it is on the shelf the general beer buying public is more likely to pick these up randomly over christmas/"winter" beers.

 

I have never noticed a louder or softer bashing of early release seasonals whether it's fall, spring, winter, or summer. Releasing spring beer in January is just as stupid as releasing autumn beer in July.

Maybe the breweries are trying to tell us soemthing. I guess that Christmas is right around the corner. So this year for Halloween, I hope to dress like Santa Claus and sing Christmas Carols door to door.

 

Once a competitor releases, the pressure for other brewers is increased. It's a self induced industry "problem". As long as they brew enough to keep the supply coming, releasing 2 months ahead of the "day of the season, i.e. Christmas" is OK I suppose, but it is starting to push it. Who would want to go on summer vacation in February?

 

It's business. Companies need a window to sell their beer in. Pumpkin beer sales crash November 1st, Christmas beer sales crash January 1st. If we don't have at least 2.5 month windows of sales than the seasonal beers will not exist. Throwing away or making down perfectly good beer sucks for business. Beer needs time to sell.

 

3 months after Costo sets up their Xmas sections, I'm cool with these coming out now.

It's not like many of them don't have a long shelf life anyway. I get mad at Pumpkin beers in the summer because they sit on hot summer shelves for a couple of months before I feel like buying them, at least with these they won't go bad so quickly.