Ok, after a nice little break to get over my blog fatigue brought on by my Halloween horror movie insanity, I decided to come back and write about something I don't think I have written about yet: BEER! Winter beers to be exact. Much like the Christmas holiday season, winter beers seem to show up on the scene earlier every year. However, unlike the seething rage I experience whenever I first see the Christmas decorations at Target in the next aisle over from the Halloween decorations, the appearance of the first winter beers in October this year brought me joy. Here are a couple of my favorite winter beers. This is by no means an all-inclusive list - they are just the beers that I have already had this year that came to mind when I decided to write this post.
Columbus Winter Warmer
Lets start things of with a local brew from the Columbus brewing company. This beer is an English style winter warmer with caramel malts, ginger and cinnamon. The best winter warmers do exactly that - on a cold night the spices help warm you up from the inside out, and this is a pretty good warmer. The best part is that it is usually only $8.99 a six pack, and you can find it in most stores.
Goose Island Mild Winter/ Christmas Ale
Goose Island is one of the few breweries that does more than one winter beer each year. The Mild Winter is, unsurprisingly, an American mild ale. It's in the lighter side of medium bodied, which helps mellow out the rye spices a little bit. Mild Winter is a good starter winter ale for people who are not quite sure they can handle the spices that are in most winter beers.
The Goose Island Christmas Ale follows a tradition used by many brewers with their holiday beers - they change the recipe up every year. Goose Island always brews a brown ale, but they use different hops and spices each year. With the 2011 version, you get hints of molasses, brown sugar and gingerbread, but not too overpowering. I found this year's offering to be pretty tasty.
Bell's Winter White/Christmas Ale
Like Goose Island, Bell's Brewery has 2 winter offerings. However, unlike Goose Island, whose 2 beers are similar in style, Bell's brews two radically different beer styles. The Winter White is a Belgian style white ale, very light in color and lower in alcohol (5%). While they do not use any actual spices, it still has a nice clove flavor that reminds you it is a winter beer. Incredibly flavorful.
Bell's Christmas Ale also does not have any spices. They instead opt for a toffee-like flavor and a toasted barley hint that add up to a delicious combination. Bell's is one of my favorite breweries and I really like the direction they went with their 2 seasonal offerings to set them apart from most other winter beers.
Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale
Anchor is another brewery that changes the formula of their Christmas Ale (also called "Our Special Ale") every year. However, unlike most breweries that have been playing with their formulas for just a few years, Anchor is on their thirty-seventh different version! I discovered their Christmas Ale in 2009 I learned that many people cellar this beer to compare the different vintages. I made sure to set some aside each year since, so this Christmas, I will be able to compare the 2009 and 2010 to the excellent 2011. This year's version tastes of dark fruit (cherries and raisin I think) and there is also some nice piney flavors from the hops. Absolutely delicious.
Great Lakes Christmas Ale
Finally, for this part of the country, we have the Holy Grail of winter beers. As in, good luck finding much of it. The demand for it is so high that there is little chance you will find any of this in the stores (although some places will have it on tap longer) much past the beginning of December (unless you are like me and you buy and extra sixer of it as soon as you see it and sit on it until Christmas). Great Lakes' beer is the same formula every year - its a winter warmer style brewed with honey, cinnamon and ginger. Now, I think this beer is pretty damn good, but the hype for it has gotten out of control: some stores are limiting you to 1 six pack at a time. Luckily, like I said, I have a sixer in the cellar for Christmas day.
Columbus Winter Warmer
Lets start things of with a local brew from the Columbus brewing company. This beer is an English style winter warmer with caramel malts, ginger and cinnamon. The best winter warmers do exactly that - on a cold night the spices help warm you up from the inside out, and this is a pretty good warmer. The best part is that it is usually only $8.99 a six pack, and you can find it in most stores.
Goose Island Mild Winter/ Christmas Ale
Goose Island is one of the few breweries that does more than one winter beer each year. The Mild Winter is, unsurprisingly, an American mild ale. It's in the lighter side of medium bodied, which helps mellow out the rye spices a little bit. Mild Winter is a good starter winter ale for people who are not quite sure they can handle the spices that are in most winter beers.
The Goose Island Christmas Ale follows a tradition used by many brewers with their holiday beers - they change the recipe up every year. Goose Island always brews a brown ale, but they use different hops and spices each year. With the 2011 version, you get hints of molasses, brown sugar and gingerbread, but not too overpowering. I found this year's offering to be pretty tasty.
Bell's Winter White/Christmas Ale
Like Goose Island, Bell's Brewery has 2 winter offerings. However, unlike Goose Island, whose 2 beers are similar in style, Bell's brews two radically different beer styles. The Winter White is a Belgian style white ale, very light in color and lower in alcohol (5%). While they do not use any actual spices, it still has a nice clove flavor that reminds you it is a winter beer. Incredibly flavorful.
Bell's Christmas Ale also does not have any spices. They instead opt for a toffee-like flavor and a toasted barley hint that add up to a delicious combination. Bell's is one of my favorite breweries and I really like the direction they went with their 2 seasonal offerings to set them apart from most other winter beers.
Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale
Anchor is another brewery that changes the formula of their Christmas Ale (also called "Our Special Ale") every year. However, unlike most breweries that have been playing with their formulas for just a few years, Anchor is on their thirty-seventh different version! I discovered their Christmas Ale in 2009 I learned that many people cellar this beer to compare the different vintages. I made sure to set some aside each year since, so this Christmas, I will be able to compare the 2009 and 2010 to the excellent 2011. This year's version tastes of dark fruit (cherries and raisin I think) and there is also some nice piney flavors from the hops. Absolutely delicious.
Great Lakes Christmas Ale
Finally, for this part of the country, we have the Holy Grail of winter beers. As in, good luck finding much of it. The demand for it is so high that there is little chance you will find any of this in the stores (although some places will have it on tap longer) much past the beginning of December (unless you are like me and you buy and extra sixer of it as soon as you see it and sit on it until Christmas). Great Lakes' beer is the same formula every year - its a winter warmer style brewed with honey, cinnamon and ginger. Now, I think this beer is pretty damn good, but the hype for it has gotten out of control: some stores are limiting you to 1 six pack at a time. Luckily, like I said, I have a sixer in the cellar for Christmas day.
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