Have you ever heard the most famous story of Saint Nicholas?

Saint Nicholas is the common name for Nicholas of Myra, a Lycian saint and Bishop of Myra in Lycia of Anatolia (modern-day Antalya province, Turkey, though at the time it was a Greek-speaking Roman Province). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercessions, he is also known as Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving.

His most famous exploit is told as follows.

A poor man had three daughters but could not afford a proper dowry for them. This meant that they would remain unmarried and probably, in absence of any other possible employment would have to become prostitutes. Hearing of the poor man's plight, Nicholas decided to help him but being too modest to help the man in public, he went to his house under the cover of night and threw a purse filled with gold coins through the window opening into the man's house, as his oldest daughter came of age. He did this again when the second daughter came of age. The third time the father lay in wait, trying to discover the identity of their benefactor.

Nicholas learns of the poor man's plan and drops the third bag down the chimney instead; the daughter had washed her stockings that evening and hung them over the embers to dry, and the bag of gold fell into the stocking. For his help to the poor, Nicholas is the patron saint of pawnbrokers; the three gold balls traditionally hung outside a pawnshop symbolize the three sacks of gold. People began to suspect that he was behind a large number of anonymous gifts to the poor; after he died, people in the region continued to give to the poor anonymously, and such gifts were still often attributed to Saint Nicholas.

Barley's Saint Nick's Winter Warmer

Style Guidelines: Spiced Winter Warmer 

Rotation Schedule: Winter

Food Pairings: Christmas cookies, egg nog, turkey and stuffing

Body: full

Color: Deep copper

Grain: British pale and crystal; malt extract

Bittering Hops: Cascade

Finishing Hops: German Hallertau

Adjuncts: Buckwheat honey, fresh ginger, cinammon, ornage zest, sugar

Original Gravity: 1.107

IBUs (estimate):

Alcohol By Volume: 11.4%

First Tapped: November 21, 2002

depiction of Saint Nick

Barley's Smokehouse & Brewpub Ale House No. 2xx 1130 Dublin Road Columbus OH 43215