Beer of the Week (Vol. XXX)

Another Beer of the Week brought to you as always by the right jolly fellows at Glen Lake Wine & Spirits. Why bother with the agonies of shopping at the mall when everything you need to spread holiday cheer is available at their store?

The coming of winter is not a welcome prospect for many. With winter comes cold, snow, and ice. Long nights and short days make the sun seem like an infrequent visitor instead of an everyday friend. Shorts are exchanged for snow pants, t-shirts for thermal underwear, and sandals for Sorrels. Winter can be a brutal and uncompromising season.

But it can also be a wonderful time of year. When I think of the coming of winter I think of three things: Christmas, hockey, and winter beer (not necessarily in that order). While I love summer and the refreshing beers that come with it, winter has become my favorite time of year for beer. Many of my favorite seasonal are winter beers. There's so much variety and so much flavor in the winter offerings that I never tire of them. In fact, I usually greet the end of the winter beer season with a sense of dread sometimes accompanied by panicked buying of the remaining stocks to try extend my supply just a little bit longer. Note to brewers: In Minnesota, winter starts in November and ends in mid-April (if we're lucky). Please plan your winter beer deliveries to our state accordingly.

It seems like with every passing winter, there are more and more winter beers available to choose from. And I plan to get through as many as possible in the coming months.

The winter beer season officially begins today with 2° Below from New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Standard brown New Belgium bottle. Label has typical New Belgium artwork with hops framing an outdoor winter scene. Snow on the roof, icicles dangling from the gutter, frozen pipes, and a thermometer reflecting the beer's name set against a harsh bluish-gray sky. Brrrrrr...

Beer Style: Extra special bitter

Alcohol by Volume: 6.6%

COLOR (0-2): Light brown and clear. 2

AROMA (0-2): Hoppy with sweetness. 2

HEAD (0-2): Full and white. Good lacing. 2

TASTE (0-5): Interesting flavor profile. Malty with well-defined hoppiness and a little citrus and spice. Medium-bodied. 4

AFTERTASTE (0-2): Alcohol follow through is a little sharp. 1

OVERALL (0-6): Not your typical winter offering. It took me a few attempts (four bottles to be exact) to get a handle on this beer. It's a tasty and hearty winter beer that not's too heavy. You can definitely enjoy more than one in a sitting and it's a fine beer to pass the long winter nights with. 4

TOTAL SCORE (0-19): 15