For our last day we tried Christmas beer from the Ölvisholt brewery near Selfoss, who created two Christmas beers, one called Jóli, and another called Jólabjór. Ölvisholt makes one of my favourite beer, a red ale called Móri, so I was quite excited to test their Christmas beers.

Jóli
It is a dark brown beer with added ginger, cloves and cinnamon. It smells a little bit like gingerbread and is quite strong with 6.3%.
Christmassiness: One can slightly taste the warm winter spices.
Overall tastiness: My flatmate really did not like it. It is an ok dark beer, quite bitter with a strong aftertaste but nice and creamy. One can taste the spices slightly at the beginning. This beer will put hairs on your chest.

Jólabjór
It is a lighter red ale (5%) with the same spices as above and added orange peel. The orange taste overpowers the spice taste.
Christmassiness: Typical Christmas taste in beer
Overall tastiness: Nothing special really, but very drinkable. My flatmate liked it more because it was not as dark and bitter. I liked it less for the same reason. I found the orange and spices did not harmonize with the beer as much as the above.

Note on both: I was a bit disappointed, I had expected something a bit more creative than just adding spices. That said to me Jóli was the winner, the gingerbread spices seemed to be better suited for a darker beer and the added orange in the Jólabjór overloaded the beer with non-beer tastes.

The last list (with notes):

1. Jólakaldi and Einstök Icelandic Doppelbock

I had Einstök again the other day and liked it more this time. Both have a nice creamy Christmas taste going on only by the way the hops was malted. If you feel like a lighter beer, go for Kaldi, for a darker the doppelbock.


2. Þvörusleikir

They also achieve a lot of taste just using the usual beer ingredients. If you like hoppy beers (like my flatmate) this is a really interesting beer to try.


3. Steðji Jólabjór

It is possible to put licorice in beer and get something tasty, my mind is blown


4. Jóli

Solid dark and creamy beer with Christmas spices.


5. Íslenskur Úrvals Jólabock and Gæðingur Jólabjór

One a bock, the other (I insist to call it that) an IPA which are ok to drink


6. Ölvisholt Jólabjór

Too many added tastes, which is a bit sad, because I think the underlying red ale might be quite nice.


7. Víking Jólabjór

A drinkable red ale when there is nothing else around


8. Tuborg Christmas Beer

If you ever felt like drinking your Tuborg through a licorice straw (they do that with Coke here in Iceland) you will like this. Icelanders do.


9. Gull Jólabjór

Awful beer made worse by throwing orange into it. Radler gone very, very wrong.


10. Egils Malt Jólabjór

Sweet and sticky awfulness