Toffee and mince pies on the nose. Taste has tangy caramel, a fistful of seasonal spices, and a decent level of hop bitterness. Great flavour profile, but it seems a little under-carbonated. Still, this is a proper Christmas beer, and Little Santa approves. #BskyBeer

Chocolate sponge and dark fruitage on the nose. Decent body. Taste does, yes, bring to mind a Black Forest Gateau, offering dark chocolate, cherry and cream, but in a relatively subtle way. Finishes with a nutty dryness. A pleasing mid-strength stout. #BskyBeer

Enjoying a Driftin' Hazy Pale from Low Quay Brew Co, at the source #BskyBeer

Flash House Brewery: Still the best little industrial estate brewery taproom in #NorthShields #BskyBeer

A nice chewy bitter westward IPA from Loch Lomond Brewery, on tap at the Seven Stars in #NorthShields: Bravehop IPA (6% abv). Highly decent 🍻 #BskyBeer

Collaboristic impy deliciousness from Beak and Pomona Island, at the Aperture Alehouse in #NorthShields. Choccy praliney goodness 😋 #BskyBeer

Quick pint at the Enigma Tap #NorthShields. Got to have a Red Rye Ale at this time of year if spotted in the wild. This one from Silent Brew Co has lots of chewy spiced-up toffee apples and a nutty dryness. There's also a bit of a peaty note, but I'm not sure if that's intended... #BskyBeer

Man cannot live on Christmas beers alone... Taking a break from all the Christmas beers with this classic. I often find it too sweet and buttery for my tastes, especially on draft, but mercifully this bottle isn't a diacetyl bomb. Perfectly acceptable 😁🍻 #BskyBeer

Aroma is a Christmassy bath bomb. Taste is more subtle: caramelism leads the charge, quickly followed by a harmonious blend of spices, candied fruits, and choirs of angels. This is one of the essential Christmas beers, and rightly so. #BskyBeer

Aroma has yeasted-up lemon sherbets, with honey-drizzled bananas in the background. The taste: phwoar! Toffee apple, caramelised banana, iced lemon sponge cake, and the rest. Sensational stuff! #BskyBeer

Ooh I like this. Lovely aroma of mildly spiced orangey chocolate. Taste has a bitter-sweet combo of pithed-up satsumas and candied orange, with a light drizzle of caramel and a sprinkle of biscuit crumbs. Delicious. I felt sad when it was all gone. #BskyBeer

Stouty aroma, with lots of black coffee in particular. Taste continues the stouty theme, with plenty of roasty-toasty choccy-coffeeness. As it opens up, we also get blackcurrants, black cherries, some nuttiness, and a hint of licorice. Not very ‘Belgian’, but certainly a great dark ale. #BskyBeer

Spiced-up perfumeyness on the nose. Taste is crisp and dry, combining light malts with clovey cinnamon and candied orange. Nice. Little Santa likes this one. #BskyBeer

Aroma has toffee apples and candied citrus. Taste opens with brown bread crusts, then brings along some marmalade and black tea, before adding some high altitude pine forest. Comes with a commendable level of bitterness. Good beer. Give it to someone special, to save you from tears. #BskyBeer

Outrageously Christmassy on the nose, with lots of candied orange and all the spices. Taste has lebkuchen, mince pies, pfeffernüsse, Christmas cake, and the rest, all dowsed in Grand Marnier. A candidate for the ultimate Christmas beer. It’s magnificent! #BskyBeer

The Belgian cousin of Celebration IPA? Aroma has resinous hoppiness combined with candied citrus. Taste starts with a blast of orangey grapefruit before introducing a piney throat-tickle. Meanwhile, layers of sticky caramel and yeasty spice do their thing. This is such a good beer! #BskyBeer

Happy #BlackEyeFriday to all those who celebrate #BskyBeer

Aroma has crystallised fruits suspended from the branches of a pine tree. Taste brings bitter-sweet marmalade-on-wholemeal, pink grapefruit sprinkled with brown sugar, and a whole lot of magnificence. Superb! #BskyBeer

Charity Shop Beer Book Bargain of the Week (£1) #BskyBeer

Saw this and did a double take. Golden Pints - surely that's not still a thing?! It made me look back at my own efforts, but it seems I only did it once, in 2016. So, for a bit of nostalgia... wp.me/p6nduw-fm #BskyBeer

Aroma provides a noseblast of black coffee and brown sugar, plus a waft of Biscoff. Taste has treacle toffee and dark chocolate sprinkled liberally with cinnamon. Some (not much) gingery warmth in the background. VERY sweet. Some booziness. Gingerbread? Latte? Not really. Not bad though. #BskyBeer

Unforgiveable typo on the can (unless I’m missing something). Aroma is heady with dankness. Taste is a hoptastic slurpy fruitbowl, with some snow-covered pine in the finish. In truth it’s not very Christmassy, but it’s certainly a most excellent hazehog. I like. #BskyBeer

Lots of sweet grainy malts on the nose. Taste is all about the bready caramel, but it’s cut through with some lemony hoppage, and finishes dry. One of those Christmas beers where you ask yourself “how is this a Christmas beer?” But hey, it’s a tasty lager. #BskyBeer

Aroma has an initial waft of dark fruit followed by some Flat White sniffage. Taste has a lovely creamy choccy-coffeeness with a roasty bitterness on the back end. This is very good! #BskyBeer

Biscuity satsuma on the nose. Taste is distinctly grapefruitistic, with a thread of light maltage running through it, and finishing with a throaty pineyness. Bitterness is mild to moderate. Maybe not the boldest of Westies, but certainly balanced, approachable, and solidly satisfying. #BskyBeer

Textbook hefeweizen action. And it’s in Sainsbury’s - what a time to be alive. Aroma is Top Banana. Mouthfeel has a lovely creamy fullness. Taste leans in towards caramelism, producing those childhood chewy banana toffees. Deliciously joyous. #BskyBeer

Light passion fruit and citrus aroma. Taste has unobtrusive straw maltage up front, with the hops taking a while to get going, eventually offering some peachy tangerine action and hints of red berry. After a slow start, it grew on me. Not bad. #BskyBeer

Well I’m a sucker for a proper old school Westie, so let’s see. Certainly looks the part. Aroma also ticks the foresty grapefruit box. Taste lacks resinous slickness but has digestive biscuits with some background citrus and a growing piney bitterness in the finish. A decent Aldi cheapie. #BskyBeer

Phwoar! @thefreetradeinn.bsky.social #BskyBeer

Beery excellence at @donzokobeer.bsky.social last night. An essential taproom stop in #Newcastle #BskyBeer

Promising aroma of oranged-up crystal malt with a coniferous edge. Taste lives up to that promise, providing chewy toffee maltage with lots of piney citrus with a proper bitterness, plus a nice dry tongue-clicking finish. For a Home Bargains cheapie, this exceeded all expectations. #BskyBeer

The bottled version is worlds away from having this from a wooden barrel on a balmy evening in Munich, but I suppose this will have to do right now. Aroma has summer haybales. Body is on the thin side. Taste has Custard Creams and a light herbal bitterness. Hellishly drinkable. #BskyBeer

Aroma is a straw-covered fruit salad. Very soft on the palate. Taste has a slurpy citro-tropical blend, but there’s a welcome pineyness on the back end to add an extra dimension. Decent NEIPA shizzle. #BskyBeer

Pulpy tropicalism on the nose. Taste has plenty of slurpy exotica, but there’s a slightly weird aftertaste that I can’t put my finger on. And the body isn't particularly full, despite it claiming to be ‘thick’ on the can. Nope, I’m not convinced by this. #BskyBeer

Aroma provides a big cocoa powder inhalation. Taste provides very pleasantly balanced choc-forward stoutism. Smooth, with little in the way of roasty bitterness, as no doubt intended. But where’s the pistachio? Show me the pistachio! It’s a lovely beer, just not as advertised. #BskyBeer

Ok ahem #BombGirlsCharityBottleshare Christmas edition Sunday 21st of December @central-bar.bsky.social 3 for 3.30 start As ever it will £15 to attend from Buymeacoffee.com/bombgirl With all proceeds to @MensPieClub If people want we can do a secret santa 🎅 Tribute to Dave Dyer...tell get it

A Sierra Nevada themed Friday evening at Wallsend's finest craft beer bar, the Santa Rosa* #BskyBeer *undisclosed location (mate's back garden)

Enjoying a Dafty Juice from Flash House Brewing Co, at the source #NorthShields #BskyBeer

The brewery taproom cisterns of North Shields, Part One of a series of one: Low Quay Brew Co #BskyBeer

Enjoying a Driftin' Hazy Pale from Low Quay Brew Co at their brewery taproom in #NorthShields #BskyBeer

Quality NEIPA action. Enjoying a 'Weapon of Choice: Riwaka' from Bearwood Brewing, on tap at Aperture Alehouse in #NorthShields #BskyBeer

Enjoying a Strata DDH from Two By Two Brewing at the Enigma Tap in #NorthShields #BskyBeer

Enjoying a Lost in Mosaic from Loch Lomond Brewery, on cask at the Seven Stars in #NorthShields #BskyBeer

Aroma has an uplifting citric freshness. Taste isn’t quite as hop-forward as the aroma suggests, supplying a biscuity malt base with a fruitbowl overwash. A perfectly reasonable easy-drinking generic hazy pale. #BskyBeer

Haybale meadowness on the nose. Taste has light grassy maltage up front, before being joined by a mild herbal bitterness, which gives way to a clean dry finish. Not the most characterful Bavarian helles, but it’s certainly a crisp refresher. #BskyBeer

Aroma has the required resinous marmalade. Taste has light orangey grapefruit up front, developing a nice piney bitterness. Unobtrusive maltage. Very light on the palate (a little too light for the style). So not quite bang on as a WCIPA, but a great flavour profile. Overall, decent. #BskyBeer

Aroma has all the morning-after peaty campfires. Taste is nicely balanced between savoury smoked baconism and sweet mapled honeyness. While I can’t help wishing it had a fuller body, this is a flavoursome beauty with true character. Yum! #BskyBeer

Enjoying an excellent Export India Porter from Flash House Brewing Co at the source - their taproom in #NorthShields. (Bloody hell though, it's freezing in here 😆) #BskyBeer

Enjoying a Theakston 'Poltergeist' 👻 salted caramel porter from the handpulls of the Seven Stars in #NorthShields. Tasty stuff, nicely done. #BskyBeer

Enjoying a Citra Pale Ale from North Pier Brew Co, from the handpulls of Enigma Tap in #NorthShields #BskyBeer