Brasserie d’Achouffe
Each year the gnomes in southern Belgium concoct N’Ice Chouffe (10%). They brew it with special additions of thyme, vanilla, dried Curaçao orange peel and dark candy sugar.
Rogue Ales
Portland, OR’s new “rogue” winter beer is FestiveAle (6.2%), a Belgian-style saison brewed with grains of paradise, ginger root, sweet gale and Curaçao orange.
Magic Hat Brewing
Way up north in Burlington, VT (the West Coast of New England on the shores of Lake George), St. Goötz (5.8%) will keep you warm and toasty. This hazy brown German-style dark wheat beer (dunkel weizen) is dedicated “to a lifetime of devotion and a winter of warmth.” The Feast of Fools Winter Variety 12-Pack includes bottles of St Goötz, Fat Angel, #9 and Batch #372 (“a salute to the famed Scottish ales of yore”).
Brooklyn Brewery
The Dodgers are long gone but the beer has returned to Brooklyn. Winter Ale (7.2%) is a spiced strong ale. In the Variety 12-Pack you can find Winter Ale along with 2005 Black Chocolate Stout (8%), 2005 Monster Ale (11%), East India Pale Ale (7%), Brown Ale (5.5%) and Lager (5.2%).
Coopers Brewery
Down Under in Australia, winter can be spent either on the beach or in the bush with Coppers Best Extra Stout (6.3%) or Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale (7.1%).
Alaskan Brewing
If any place has a winter, it has to be Juneau, AK. Winter Ale (6.4%) nips the tips off the spruce trees and pops them into an English olde ale. And then there’s the annual vintage release of Alaskan Smoked Porter (6.5%). The malt for this dark beer is smoked over alder wood at a local fish smokery.
