If you're in the mood, this is one of the more enjoyable ways to get that holiday spice experience while drinking local. This smooth, dark-gold concoction is essentially gingerbread in a glass, but it doesn't carry that acrid or bitter aftertaste that follows a lot of flavored beers. Regular readers of this column know that I don’t typically skew sugary, but for whatever reason, ABC’s winter spiced ale just works, so it takes this list’s honorary sweet slot. Winter Warmer Ale (6.8 percent ABV), Amherst Brewing Company, Amherst Perfect for low-key house parties and early nights at the fire.
This lightly spiced, copper-colored accomplishment is a bit more fragrant than its dark-malty counterparts on this list - it evokes a dash of brown sugar, and a sprinkle of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove - but for fans of Belgian beers, this is a super local offering you can’t catch year-round. The Trappist monks at Spencer Abbey put a lot of care into this Belgian-style strong dark ale, and it shows. Trappist Holiday Ale (9 percent ABV), Spencer Brewery, Spencer Wormtown has paid tribute to those harrowing three days by crafting a thick, warming beer you can nurse while you share a wild winter yarn of your own - made with fresh-roasted coffee beans from Acoustic Java in Worcester. This bold, dark-roasted beer is probably the best thing to come out of that catastrophic February storm four decades ago, which dropped 27 inches of snow on Boston and did almost $2 billion worth of damage throughout the Northeast (adjusted for inflation). These eight, on the other hand, pass the test for snowbound months ahead:īlizzard of ’78 - English Style Brown Ale (6 percent ABV), Wormtown Brewery, Worcester And Goose Island’s Festivity Ale was too festive for my tastes, overloaded with cherry notes, caramel thickness, and dark malt sugars to the point of imitating a fruitcake. Harpoon’s UFO Winter Blonde, which is a golden-colored vanilla coffee ale, reminded me of a shot of vanilla syrup in a coffee-chain latte - not good. I’m generally as optimistic about winter-holiday beers as I am pessimistic about pumpkin-spiced autumn beers (I guess October just isn’t my month), and luckily my haul this year yielded only two misfires. Sam Adams has made an enjoyable showing this year as well, with releases like the spiced wheat ale called White Christmas.īut let’s duck a little further under the radar to check out eight of the Beerhunter’s favorite holiday ales. And New England has its local winter classics, from Berkshire Brewing Company’s Cabin Fever Ale to Harpoon Brewery’s Winter Warmer to Peak Organic’s Winter Session Ale. Some of the best-known winter craft offerings, like the Lagunitas strong ale Brown Shugga’, don’t need much introduction. These days, the Nor’easter stockpile options are a bit more refined, and many newer craft breweries produce darker, spicier beers for winter - complemented by older holiday mainstays like S ierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale, first brewed in 1981 and still selling strong. When predictions of blizzards rolled into town, our parents and grandparents ran to the package store and grabbed a 30-pack of cheap lager cans (we used to call them “dad soda”) along with bread, milk, and eggs.
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