The Shocking Diversity of Winter Beers

Okay, I'll fess up. Yesterday's poll was in part an experiment to confirm what I suspected--winter beers are the most diverse, most widely-appreciated lot in the beer calendar. On that list we have regular winter warmers, spiced ales, a super-strong lager, a saison, a barleywine (sort of), a milk stout, and whatever Epic is. You could easily add to the list doppelbocks, imperial stouts, barleywines, and all manner of special spiced strong ales. Winter beers have the same qualities of fruit cakes--dense, stongly alcoholic, warming, celebratory--but they taste good.

We're coming in on the Holiday Ale Fest, which debuts tomorrow, and the variety is just as broad. The cool thing about the holiday season is you don't have to have a favorite. You can have ten.