Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
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Winter Beer www.beveragedynamics.com November/December 2015• Beverage Dynamics 59 popular winter beers out there right now," he says about Ac- cumulation. "It seems like the white IPAs—that style is a little lighter in body, but still heavy—are interesting to consumers." There are other hop-forward winter seasonals, notably Cel- ebration Ale, the winter seasonal from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. First brewed in 1981, this potent 6.8% India pale ale, brewed as soon as fresh hops are available, is eagerly antic- ipated by festive hopheads every November. "It's not a winter warmer; it's just a danged good IPA," says Morrison, who calls it her "hands-down favorite." But the classic rich, dark ales still draw a crowd. Kreston turns the seasonal appeal of Tröegs' cherry-tinged Mad Elf Ale on its head, conserving a few kegs to hook up on the growler system for a Christmas in July event. "It flies out just as fast as it does at Christmastime," he says. JUGGLING THE SEASONS When it comes to seasonal beers, allocation and availability are a challenge for retailers, but so is the timing. Despite some resistance from retailers and grumbling from customers, brew- eries are keen to be the first out of the gate with a new season's special, moving their release dates earlier and earlier. Chris Ciskey fingers Samuel Adams for "what we delicately So when San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company re- leased Our Special Ale in November of 1975, the first Ameri- can seasonal beer since Prohibition, it was a return to tradition — not a departure from it. Every year for the next 40 years, this much-anticipated annual treat has been brewed with a different recipe and different spices (both secret), with a different tree depicted on the label. Packaged in a magnum, Our Special Ale set the standards for winter warmers: dark, rich, surpris- ing and festive. In the years that followed, craft brewers and traditional her- itage breweries fanned the public's desire for diversity and sea- sonality with a growing range of winter specials. At the small end of the market, brewpubs capitalized on the novelty of special seasonals to keep customers returning; in time, at the other end of the industry, even the mainstream breweries saw the benefits of introducing—or in some cases, re-introducing—these robust, limited brews. In general, most of these specials are "deep and dark—like the days," says Lisa Morrison, co-owner of Belmont Station in Portland, OR. "I think our tastes turn a little on the sweeter side when it's cold, so these beers are a little more malty, as well. We're thinking of spiced cookies and hot toddies and things like that, so there are a lot of Bourbon-barrel-aged beers that come out; a lot of beers with spices in them." She singles out Jubelale from Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon, as a particularly popular choice. The beer, with fla- vors of chicory, dried fruit and toffee, is the same from year to year. But the label is not: a competition awards the creative honors to a different local artist each winter. "I know some people who have collected a bottle from every single year," Morrison says, "and they bring them out as part of their holi- day decorations." Chris Ciskey, the beer manager at Yankee Wine in New- town, CT, confirms the "deep and dark" character of winter seasonals. And the deepest and darkest would be Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, a strong imperial stout aged in Bour- bon barrels. Released on Black Friday, his store's supply gen- erally lasts only hours—this despite the acquisition of Goose Island by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2011, a move that infuri- ated craft beer purists. "Flavor-wise, it's still very good and highly sought-after," Ciskey says. "Even for the geeks, it's still so good and has such high value if they like to trade. People line up to get it, and they still make a big deal out of it." He personally looks forward to another imperial stout, Black Chocolate Stout from Brooklyn Brewery, but adds "in- evitably, there's something new that I'm going to check out. For me, that's when the Bourbon barrel-aged stuff starts to really pop out." At Kreston Wine & Spirits in Wilmington, DE, fourth-gen- eration family member Jeff Kreston has noticed a contrasting trend, as some brewers explore less typical styles, including wheat beers and white IPAs, for their winter seasonals. As ex- amples, he cites Winter Cheers, a strong wheat beer from Vic- tory Brewing in Pennsylvania, and Accumulation, a white IPA from New Belgium in Colorado. "Probably one of the most Chris Ciskey is the beer manager of Yankee Wine, based in Newtown, CT.