She rules where crimson grain meets cold fermentation, her crown sharp with holly and her presence unmistakable. Red berries, citrus, and pine course through this cold-conditioned red ale like blood through ancient roots.
In the Celtic Wheel of the Year, two kings wage an eternal war. The Oak King rules the light half, from winter solstice to midsummer, presiding over growth and warmth. The Holly King claims the dark half, from midsummer to midwinter, governing the slow descent into cold. Their battle at the solstices is the engine of the seasons.
But the kings do not rule alone. Behind the Holly King stands the Holly Queen, a figure less often named but no less essential. She is winter’s feminine aspect: the sharp beauty of frost on bare branches, the silence of snow falling at night, the deep red of holly berries against dark, waxy leaves. If the Holly King is winter’s power, the Holly Queen is winter’s intelligence. She knows that the cold is not cruelty. It is dormancy. It is the rest that makes the spring possible. Without the dark half of the year, nothing would have the strength to grow in the light half.
The holly berry itself is her symbol. Bright red against evergreen, it is the only color that defies the monochrome of deep winter. Birds depend on it. Folklore held that a house without holly at midwinter was a house unprotected. The red of the berry is the red of blood, of vitality persisting where all else has gone dormant. The queen wears her crimson openly, a declaration that life continues even when everything else has stopped.
Holly Queen is a Cold India Red Ale at 6.7% ABV, cold-conditioned the way winter conditions the earth. Red berries, citrus, and pine emerge through crimson grain, rich and vivid as holly against snow. The cold fermentation is not a technique. It is a theology. This is a beer that has passed through winter and emerged the deeper for it.
