On the 10th day of Christmas, Julia recommended to me…

Matsurika from Japas Cervejaria (São Paulo, Brazil)

and

Happiest Season (2020)!

Happiest Season is what we in the biz like to call “bad.” If you’ve been thinking about watching it, don’t! What you should do instead is pick up some beers that we in the biz would call “good” from Japas Cervejaria. Japas is an awesome brewery out of Brazil that is run by three incredible Nipo-Brazilian women. They make some of the coolest, tastiest beers I’ve had the privilege of trying in recent years (and, a shocker for anyone who’s been following along in this beer countdown, none of them are sours)!

Matsurika is the first beer I tried from Japas and it made me excited to try everything else they’ve produced since. This delicate beer is a 5% ABV pilsner made with Jasmine petals that is light and herbal with a soft floral quality. This brew will have you dreaming of spring, which will be here before we know it now that the winter solstice has come and gone!

Yeah, fine, they made a “gay” Christmas movie. But…did it have to suck this hard? I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be a comedy and the plot structure was eerily similar to that of Get Out (famously, not a comedy). All in all, I teared up at the end, but I had a hard time rooting for any character that wasn’t Aubrey Plaza.

Kasato Maru is a Japas twist on a classic New England IPA. This 6.5% ABV IPA is chock full of hops and brewed with dekopon, a variety of tangerine that is indigenous to Japan. While Happiest Season attempts to prove that people can have their differences and still love one another because they’re family, Kasato Maru successfully demonstrates how different cultures can exist in harmony with this Brazillian-made New England-style beer inspired by Japanese flavors.

Wasabiru brings the heat to warm you up on a chilly winter day! A 5.5% ABV American pale ale brewed with wasabi and Cascade hops, this beer is totally unlike anything else you’ve tried before (unless you’ve tried other wasabi-infused beers, in which case, I’d love to hear all about it). Balanced hoppy bitterness with bold, unmistakable wasabi notes, Wasabiru is uniquely delicious in the same way Happiest Season is uniquely cringe-inducing.

Can’t find any Japas in your area? Find another awesome women-run brewery to support! As a beer-loving lady, I’m always excited to see women kicking ass and taking names in the brewing world. Now that’s the kind of representation that I care about—not this totally whack attempt at queering the construct of the holiday movie.

Happy holidays ya filthy animals!