Christmas. Tis the season to be jolly. And buy beer. Here's a round-up of the choicest beery offerings from my favourite online sellers.

Beermerchants have a panoply of mixed cases on offer. Their Belgian Beer Lover's case features solid stuff such as Palm, Chimay Rouge and Brugse Zot. A luxury case offers delights such as Boon Marriage Parfait, La Chouffe and Orval. And the Berry Christmas case has fruit-forward beers including Boon Framboise, Fruli Strawberry and Rodenbach Grand Cru.

They also have a rather nifty Chimay presentation tin that crams in a bottle each of red, white and blue plus a glass. And because it's in a tin, it's easy to wrap. Result!

If you're looking to treat yourself, the Connoisseurs case offers some of the finest rare UK brews like Moor Fusion, Kernel Imperial Stout and Hardknott Infra Red alongside "best of the best" of world beers such as Lost Abbey's Gift of the Magi. And there's always their ever-impressive range of rare beers from Denmark and the United States - bear in mind that some of those American brews can't even be bought in some states over there so to have them on sale in the UK is a real coup.

The guys at myBrewerytap have a great mixed case with plenty of dark beers for these cold days. Highlights for me include Dark Star Espresso (one of my favourites), Fyne Ales Highlander and a brace of dark lagers from Freedom and Brewdog. You can 'supersize' the case and add a myBrewerytap T-shirt for a fiver extra. Or why not treat someone to the full enchilada and treat them to the "52-week Beer Club" subscription?

There's also plenty of beery goodness from Manchester brewers Marble. Alongside a mixed case of their regular beers, myBrewerytap have also secured limited stocks of two specials, a US-styled IPA and a stout, both in 75cl bottles with cork closures.

Beers Of Europe have their usual range of specially selected cases, along with a Christmas mix including the likes of Hoggleys Frosty Ferret, Batemans Rosey Nosey and Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale. They have lots of other goodies on their gargantuan shelves - some that caught my eye include the Adnams Handcrafted Ales range and some superb De Molen beers such as Rasputin.

And there's a couple of great-looking gift packs over at Ales By Mail. One's from Meantime including what for me are two of the best large bottled beers on sale in the UK right now - London Porter and IPA - along with two stemmed Meantime glasses. A great way to drink in the New Year!

The other is from Moor, featuring a branded glass, T-shirt and a 660ml bottle of beer - and you get to choose which colour t-shirt and which bottle of beer from the impressive Moor range..

And Ales By Mail are obviously full of Christmas spirit already as they've offered up one of those Moor packs as a festive prize. Just head over to their Facebook page, 'like' it and let them know which beers you'd like to be drinking this Christmas. I'm sure they'll find some way of choosing a worthy winner!


Obvious disclaimer - I'm a grateful recipient of occasional free beer from beermerchants and myBrewerytap. I also like to buy beer from them - yes, Blogger Actually Buys Beer Shocker. >

The first time I went to Brugge I took a piece of card with me, on which were scribbled the names of ten beers that the tourist guides told me I should try. Those beers changed my life. The next time I go back to Belgium, I'm taking something more substantial... and it could be life changing all over again.

For nearly two decades, Tim Webb has been compiling the Good Beer Guide Belgium (GBGB) for CAMRA. Now in its sixth edition, it's widely regarded as an indispensable book for even the most casual of Belgian beer lovers. I'd have liked to put GBGB to a fit and proper test - a weekend away in Belgium with venues and beer choices shaped by the guide. That'll have to wait until next year; for now I'd suffice with a few random Belgian bottles and a steaming plate of moules frites. There's a chapter about food... I wonder what Tim Webb thinks of this classic dish?

"The cartoon version of Belgian cuisine has it that the national dish is mussels and chips..". Whoops. Still, later on in the excellent chapter, he mentions that mussels go well with an amber ale so I was forced to open up a bottle of PALM Speciale. And it was indeed a worthy pairing, the first time I'd tried the beer and found it to be clean malted and very sessionable.

Back to the book. Given that Tim Webb has produced a guide to over a thousand beers and six hundred places to drink them in, it still reads like a personable travel guide rather than a beer almanac. The book splits roughly into thirds - a detailed listing of specialist beer bars by province, an alphabetical overview of the breweries with their regular commercial beers and a heap of advice and guidance on beer styles, Belgian brewing and travel. The bar and brewery reviews are concise, pithy and not without a dose of dry humour. For some, the occasionally world-weary sarcasm may wear thin quickly, but Tim's approach makes GBGB a travelogue experience rather than a dry encyclopaedic tome.

There's also a selection of introductory articles that take a fresh look at contemporary Belgian beer issues, by the likes of brewer Frank Boon and historian Ron Pattinson. This approach, along with Tim's masterful handling of style discussion and an excellent chapter on the "art and science of creating beer" make the GBGB stand out as a truly entertaining and informative book. It's well illustrated, clearly set out, compact enough for travelling with yet still comprehensive enough to be of use.

If you're planning a trip to Belgium and want to end up drinking somewhere that doesn't just offer buckets of Jupiler, this is the book for you.

Thanks to BEERmerchants.com for the review copy and a few beers to get me in a Belgique mood. They've put together a classy mixed case of Belgian beer (including the likes of Chimay, Orval and Rochefort) along with a glass and a copy of the Good Beer Guide Belgium. That'd be a great Christmas present for someone beery in your life - or even to yourself. Go on, you're worth it! >