Beer Style: Winter Beers
Deschutes Brewery’s Jubelale clone
Available from October through December, Jubelale features a deep red color and notes of cocoa, dried fruit, and toffee.
SamiClones
It’s arguably the most famous holiday beer in the world – Samichlaus. Learn from homebrewers who have made it how to clone this Christmas classic.
Black Diamond Brewing Company: Winter Ale clone
Black Diamond Winter Ale is a classic Belgian dubbel. Perfect for the winter season, its deep garnet color accentuates its dark fruity undertones of raisins, dates, plums, and cherries.
Boulevard Brewing’s Nutcracker Ale clone
Boulevard’s annual winter warmer is a hearty brew with a deep amber color.
Butte Creek Brewing’s Winter Ale clone
This beer is now retired. The Butte Creek Brewing Co.’s annual winter ale was technically an American Brown Ale with Fuggle hops providing a balance to the malty backbone.
Schloss Eggenberg: Samichlaus clone
For a long time, Samiclaus held the title as strongest beer in the world. Samichlaus is a doppelbock that continues to develop the longer it is aged.
Magic Hat Brewing Co.’s Feast of Fools clone
“This beer is more along the style of a sweet stout. There’s no milk sugar, but we use one pound of fresh raspberries per gallon!” — Magic Hat head brewer Matt Cohen (now owner of Fiddlehead Brewing Co. in Shelburne, Vermont)
Avery Brewing Company’s Old Jubilation Ale clone
Available October through November, Old Jubilation is a winter strong ale that features a hint of hazelnuts, mocha, toffee, and spice.
Brewing Award-Winning Winter Seasonal Beers
What makes a winter seasonal beer? For competition purposes, the most important thing to note is that winter seasonal beer is part of the spiced beer style category. This means that the
Holiday Ale
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains) OG = 1.063 FG = 1.015 IBU = 35 SRM = 10 ABV = 6.6% Ingredients: 12 oz. (0.34 kg) British crystal malt (55° L) 1
Sleepy Bear Wassail
A spiced Christmas punch of sorts.
