Humble origins of a holiday ale

If you find yourself on say, a short, dark, and damp day in February of 2009, popping the cork on a bottle of our holiday ale for a little winter's warming, try to think back to that day at the end of May when the sun never seemed to go down, and the coriander blossoms opened up on the portion of cilantro in our herb pot that we allowed to bolt. It has to start somewhere, right?