Book of Lists: 5) Best Winter Beers
Courtesy St. Bernardus
A publishing phenomenon arrived in the 1970s: The Book of Lists. It was a series of apparently wildly popular books first published in 1977 that functioned as pre-internet topic-surfing. Which got me thinking: blogs were basically invented for this kind of thing! Thus was born a modern-day version of the Book of Lists here, on the subject of beer. (Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, and 4.)
It’s midafternoon and it seems clouds have gathered out the window. No, it was already cloudy—that is the sun, beginning its descent. A thin, sharp wind picks up, rattling something loose on the roof. Darkness will arrive before 5 pm, and people will trudge home from their dreary days of labor with collars raised, into the inky evening. Rain may join the party, or snow, and by the time we are settled someplace warm and dry, our bones are chilled and weighted with a great heaviness.
This is not a moment for pale, crisp lagers, or summery IPAs with their tropical flavors. The body craves something more substantial, a warming potion. But which one? For the next three months, we will consider this question as we peer into fridges or at rows of tap handles. Is it possible to quantify the answer to this seasonal dilemma? Why, yes it is! The researchers here at Beervana Amalgamated Sentences have done our trudging, our shivering, our collar-raising and our groaning collapses into cozy couches. We have treated the winter blues with all manner of tonic, applying a rigorous methodology to identify, through the reassuring precision of science (TM), the most efficacious. The nights are near their shortest just now, the winter solstice less than a week hence—a perfect time to answer the vexing question of which beer will chase away the winter blues.
10. Spiced Ale (British tradition). The least versatile libation on our list, this kind of beer satisfies at select occasions throughout the holiday season. A tradition dating back centuries, in the UK, drinkers would heat beer or cider and add spices, apples, eggs, toast, all manner of spirits—just about anything that would be filling and warming. Modern breweries have picked up the tradition, most notably with Anchor on the West Coast and Highland out East. In the right moment, no beer satisfies like a dark, malty spiced ale, which doubles as an injection of holiday flavors. They are, however, something of a one-shot brew, not a workhorse to get you through the whole winter.
9. Winter IPA. This is actually a thing. The original template goes back to Chico, where a certain local brewery has been releasing a piney, seasonal beer for over forty years. Modern versions aren’t too very much different. They ditch some or all of the caramel malt, dial back the bitterness a wee bit, but echoes of Celebration persist. The winter IPA has a fuller body, often even a bit of color (mon Dieu!), and some sweetness. Atop this body rides a sticky, resinous punch of pine and citrus (but mostly pine). With that taste of evergreen boughs, they evoke a forest on a stille nacht.
8. Oud Bruin/Roodbruin. One of the world’s most criminally under-appreciated styles, this reddish brown specialty of Belgium’s Flanders is perfect on a cold night. Examples like Leifmans and Verhaeghe have a satisfying sweetness to accent the sour style’s natural acidity. They are especially suited for pairing with meaty winter cuisine.
7. Schwarzbier. One cannot live on boozy beasts alone. A good winter beer must have some combination of strength, malt sweetness, or roast, and a schwarzbier delivers the final two expertly. A nice schwarzbier is creamy on the palate, with the gentle sweetness of malt kissed by a touch of roast—all of which comforts on a cold, black night, despite the sessionable strength.
6. Baltic (or Polish) Porter. For more roast—along with a blast of alcohol—nothing satisfies like a Baltic porter. Many dark beers will do in a pinch—export stout, imperial stouts, even a porter—but the pinnacle is this Polish specialty. No style is more roasty, and in some examples it’s sharp enough to give the beer a tart edge. All that roast balances the alcohol, which begins warming the stomach upon impact. A hint of beetroot sweetness, and you feel like you’re ready to handle a Kraków January.
5. Bière de garde (ambrée or brune). Over here on our continent, we have mostly forgotten France’s gift to the world—and if we remember it, we usually forget that bière de garde is a category, not a style. With the fetish for pale, classic amber and brown versions are increasingly rare, but oh, what treats they are. Their malts are smooth and elegant, the underlying alcohol soft and gentle. The especially rare brunes have more plum than roast, which is perfect for the season.
4. Doppelbock. What more needs to be said?
3. Wee Heavy. Last on our tour of international strong ales, we come to Scotland, another country that knows its malt. In these beers, ale yeast plays more of a role, sweeting the palate with esters and higher alcohols. When sipping a Skull Splitter or Traquair House, one also perceives—perhaps it’s implied—the fresh, wholesome flavor of rainwater. Where most strong ales relax and narcotize the drinker, wee heavies seem to refresh.
2. Bière De Noël. A Belgian Christmas ale is a beautiful thing. It’s not precisely a style, because every Belgian brewery makes their own a little different—fierce individuality is the soul of Belgian brewing—but we can narrow it down to something like this: a strong, darker beer with tons of yeast character and a level of spicing that is subtle enough to defy specific identification. Sometimes, you’re not even sure it’s a spice and not the yeast. As such, these beers wear very well on the palate.
1. Winter Warmer. This is kind of not a style. Or wasn’t until it was. Americans had a vague sense that was a British style, though most of the beers so labeled were actually Burtons in their home country. Americans settled on a beer usually around 7% that was darkish and malty, but smooth, with a melange of all those wonderful malt flavors (nuts, leather, toffee, bread, raisins). Add a bit of hop bitterness and they had created a new kind of beer. At that strength, which encourages one to move along to a second bottle, it most perfectly combines the qualities that make a winter beer work.
Happy Holidays, everyone!