it's the most wonderful time of the year for beer drinkers Part 4: Winter Comes Early

Well, winter came early this year and I had the perfect beers to be drinking when it did. All but two of the Christmas/winter beers I tried on the third weekend of December were beers actually named "Winter Ale." So, as mother nature dropped around two feet of snow throughout much of the Delaware Valley before the official start of winter, I was sipping on ales from Brooklyn, Geary's, Oppigårds, Ipswich and Nøgne Ø breweries. I also tried Miller Coors Blue Moon Grand Cru and Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew.

Brooklyn Winter Ale is a Scottish ale brewed in New York. I've seen this beer for a long time but just got around to trying it now. At first I thought this beer came across as being a little flat for the style, but then I got to thinking. This beer is probably very similar to an actual Scottish ale. I've gotten so used to everyone making wee heavy style Scottish ales, that I forgot that all Scottish ales aren't huge alcohol bombs made even more intense by American craft brewers trying to appeal to many a beer geek's desire for extreme everything. Sorry, I'm getting off point. This beer isn't going to scream "Christmas" in your mouth, but it is a very easy-drinking winter ale that is full of caramel and nutty flavors along with slight citrus and cherry. At 6% ABV it might not thaw your bones, but you can knock back a few with good friends without embarrassing yourself.

Geary's Winter Ale is an India Pale Ale brewed in Maine. I never really think of IPAs being all that wintry or Christmasy, but a beer such as Sierra Nevada Celebration, an IPA, is one of the most sought after holiday beers around. This one wasn't quite as good as Celebration, but I might not have had the best example of this beer. It didn't seem skunked but the bottle was very dusty when I picked it up in the store. This is also a more British rendering of the IPA style, where Celebration is a very American and more specifically West Coast IPA. The Geary's has an almost honey-like malt with some cracker, oranges, peaches and apricots; and the hops are rather floral. It doesn't come across as very wintry flavor-wise, but it does seem to have a slight warming effect, which is a little surprising due to the fact that it is only 6% ABV.

The beer I was sipping when the snow began falling was Blue Moon Grand Cru, a beer brewed in honor of there being an actual blue moon on New Year's Eve this year. If you think the original Blue Moon is incredible, this one might be a little too much for you; but if you think the original is a nice stepping stone beer to get more people drinking craft beer, you will wish they made the Grand Cru all year long. It is basically an imperial version of the original in both flavor and ABV (11%). There is some biscuit in the flavor, with plenty of candy sugar, oranges, spices and even a slight funk. With the oranges and spices it comes across as a little Christmasy too.

The Oppigårds Winter Ale is surprisingly British for having been brewed in Sweden. The flavor is a little hop heavy in the beginning, but when it warms up a little it balances better with the malt. There are caramel and nutty malts, and all sorts of hops — perfumy, piney, resinous and herbal. There is also some sour fruit and citrus rind with hints of chocolate and coffee and an ever so slightly off, sour smell. It's a beer you could drink all night at just 5.3% ABV. It was much different than I was expecting when picking up a beer from Sweden, but surprises are part of trying all different beers.

The Ipswich Winter Ale, at 6.2% ABV, is a little hard to define. The brewery calls it a Scottish ale, RateBeer calls it an English strong ale, but I think it seems like a brown ale, but definitely a British brown ale. It is very malty, but a bit too hoppy to be considered Scottish. It has nutty, toasted and caramel malts, a little hint of cocoa, herbal and perfume hops, a little sour fruit, slight toffee, tea and citrus.

The Nøgne Ø Winter Ale, known as God Jul, in its native Norway, is quite good. It is particularly beautiful to look at. What you can't see above is that in direct light there is a reddish brown glow. It is very malty and chocolaty with a perfect blend of hops that almost makes it seem like there are spices in it, which it doesn't. (Their spiced beer, Peculiar Yule or Underlig Jul in Norway, is one of the most spiced beers I've ever had). At 8.5% ABV it is slightly warming. In a way it reminds me of those chocolate oranges I used to get for Christmas as a kid. It also goes well with chocolate chip cookies, so this might be a nice one to leave out for Santa.

So the day before the winter solstice, I decided to try Nøgne Ø Sunturnbrew, a beer brewed on December 21 as the sun turns and changes direction. The label states that this turning of the sun is something Norwegians believe in. Whether you do or don't, it is a fact that cultures were celebrating this time of year because they knew that after the solstice, days would start to get longer again. These celebrations were around a long time before Christmas and led to the birth of Christ being celebrated at this time of year, which is something I will get into more in my next post. But back to the beer in hand. It's pretty much a smoked barley wine, that hides its 11% ABV incredibly well. It is surprisingly easy to drink for a smoked or high ABV beer. Part of that is due to the fact that it is not overly smoked. There is just enough smoke to make it interesting. It really is like drinking an ancient beer and oddly enough I do think of it as Christmasy. The flavor is way more complex than the aroma, but the aroma is fairly complex to begin with. An excellent example of something similar to what people might have been drinking while hoisting stone drinking vessels to their lips in celebration of the sun's lengthening of days.

I really need to post more often during this project to avoid these long posts. I hope you enjoyed these latest beers. As I post this I am starting an 11-day weekend and hope to have more time to try more Christmas/winter beers. I have a few more "winter ales" to go and then I'll be getting into the specifically Christmas and Jul beers. Here's hoping my liver survives the journey. If it does I'll tell you about some more beers. If not, I hope you will continue to drink it in.