So, it's like christmas at my local grocery store. This week two important beers made their appearance: Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine and Red Hook's Winter Hook. The former is the closest substitute I've found to a real barleywine made by one of my friends' dads in his basement. Corked into liter bottles with those hinged tops, heavy, mysterious, best served at just under room temperature. Flying dog's is a little sweeter than that old mountain basement brew, but it works the same way. Just a great what-the-hell-it's-dark-at-4:30pm type of beers.
Winter Hook holds sentimental memories for me as well. When I was a bartender during college we only had bud products and Red hook products on tap, sort of two extremes. Red Hook always puts out great seasonal beers, but Winter Hook is the one we could never keep in stock. There's just something brilliant about it. It's not a christmas beer, overloaded with hints of cinammon or gingerbread or anything like that. Just a good medium weight, tiny bits of bitter, and great with things like baked ham or cheese straws.
Sierra Nevada had a christmas beer last year that I recall liking. Don't know if they do that every year or not. I'll keep an eye out for it.
Anybody else have their favorite winter ales?
