[Photographs: Sean Buchan]

The Gose (pronounced gose-uh if you want to be authentic) is a German white beer that originated in the small town of Goslar some time in the early 1500s. Since then it has undergone many periods of boom and bust, going from the most popular drink in Leipzig to being seemingly lost forever about a half dozen times. (You can read a little more history on it here.) Though once this historic style had all but disappeared, it's quickly gaining traction in the United States today.

Typically brewed with about 40% barley, 60% wheat, and a dash of oats, there's nothing special about the grain build. What sets this style apart from a witbier are the adjuncts. Coriander and salt are added during (or after) the boil in order to create a fuller mouthfeel and added complexity. (This tradition may have arisen from salty springs that provided early brewers their water.) Luckily for us, gose was allowed as an exception to the Reinheitsgebot (German Purity Law) on the grounds that it was a regional specialty beer.

When brewed to style, these are very low-hopped beers. Originally a spontaneously fermented beer, they now undergo a lactic fermentation before the addition of a Saccharomyces strain (brewer's yeast). This provides a subtle tartness, without overwhelming the palate. Typically brewed below 5.0% ABV, these session beers are ideal to crack open on a warm spring day.

Two Classics To Try

If you want to get started tasting gose, here are two old-school examples you should be able to find in good beer stores.

Brauhaus Hartmannsdorf Original Ritterguts Gose

The Original Ritterguts Gose has been brewed with the same recipe since 1776. Pale straw in color and slightly hazy, the aroma is a subtle blend of fresh lemons and bread with a sprinkle of salt. The lactic acid really comes through on this one, it has a tart, lemony brightness, followed with a wave of saltiness and mineral character that's quickly kicked to the back of the palate by the vigorous carbonation. Although it is brewed with coriander, little comes through in the finished product. I'm going to be drinking a lot of this stuff as the weather gets warmer.

Gasthaus & Gosebrauerei Bayerischer Bahnhof Leipziger Gose

Another classic, Bahnhof's Leipziger Gose drinks pretty differently from the beer above. It pours the same pale straw color, but offers a strong scent of coriander, wheat, and lemon zest. The coriander is meant to steal the show on this brew, dancing a delicate balance with the wheat malt. A very slight salinity and even slighter tartness waft over the tastebuds with a mouthfeel that's far from thin. The dry finish and active carbonation makes it incredibly drinkable.

Awesome American Examples

Once you've got a handle on what classic gose should taste like, it's time to branch out into new interpretations. Unfortunately, not all the domestic examples are good, and many of the good ones are only available on tap. All the more reason to visit your local brewery! Here are two of our favorite (unfortunately rare) American-brewed examples of the gose.

The Bruery Salt of the Earth

Before you lace up your hunting shoes I should note that this was a 2011 one-off release as part of their Provisions Series... but who knows, maybe we can convince them to brew it again. Rather than using traditional sea salt, The Bruery's team used truffle salt in this riff on the gose. It's a very carbonated beer, with a very unique aroma. A mixture of salty, peppery, and earthy notes balance nicely with just a hint of lactic acid. The addition of truffle salt clearly adds a unique earthiness to the style without taking it too far off track. Coriander is present, as is tart lemon and a strong wheat malt backbone. We can't say it's traditional, but we can say it's delicious.

Trophy Brewing Rose Gose

In another non-traditional take on the gose, Trophy Brewing Company of Raleigh, NC substituted rosemary instead of the traditional coriander in their Rose Gose. Pour a glass of this stuff, and everyone at the table can smell the rosemary. The salt and rosemary pair much better than I would have thought, but this beer has very little sourness. Rose Gose is a perfect example of the depth and complexity a little salt can add to the right beer. This very well may have been a one-dimensional beer without it, but with it we can't say any such thing.

Other domestic examples to seek out include Westbrook Gose from South Carolina, Tired Hands Ghost from Pennsylvania, Portsmouth Gose from New Hampshire, and from Oregon, the goses from Upright and Cascade. Have you tried these brews or other good goses?

About the Author: Sean Buchan covers the Denver craft beer scene for Denver off the Wagon in addition to doing freelance photography for Colorado breweries. You can also view his beer photography on his blog, Beertographer, here.

Beer samples provided for review consideration.

Prairie Gold: Summer in a bottle. [Photograph: Mike Reis]

The three breweries I'm most excited about right now are from England (Thornbridge), Germany (Freigeist), and Oklahoma (Prairie Artisan Ales). That is incredible. Me-from-two-years-ago didn't see that coming. But the quality of the liquid is undeniable. Thornbridge is making unexpected beers from unexpected inspirations, Freigeist is pushing the boundaries of what has been traditionally called German beer, and Prairie? Prairie came out of absolutely nowhere with wide distribution of surprisingly well-made, unique ales.

How did this happen? Prairie has a simple but magical recipe: well-made beers combine with gorgeous packaging and an aggressive distribution strategy to leave behind them a wide wake of satisfied customers.

And it's working. The operation has only been in existence for about a half a year, but their name and their beers seem to be on the lips of every other beer geek a half country away here in San Francisco.

With more than $20,000 in their pockets from a recent, hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, brothers Colin and Chase Healey seek to move their operation from their current tenancy at Krebs Brewing (home of Choc Beer Company) to their own space with a cooperage to experiment with 100% barrel aged beers. We're excited.

What to Try:

Prairie Hop
Bursting with Citra and Simcoe hop character, Prairie Hop is a juicy saison that is absolutely exploding with tropical fruit character. Prairie's tasting notes include mango, tangerine and peach, but we'll throw pineapple, kiwi and lime into the mix as well. This stuff is our favorite of the lineup: it's so, so good.

Standard:
Charmingly packaged with cartoon catfish noodling instructions on the label, Standard is a delicious, dry, minerally, spicy saison, and the only one of Prarie's beers available in six-packs.

Prairie Gold:
Prairie Gold is summertime, bottled. Tart and refreshing, Gold is a saison (sensing a theme here?) that is partially fermented with funky Brettanomyces and souring Lactobacillus. Moderately sour, there's a lot of complex fruit and phenol flavor going on here.

We also tried and dug Prairie's simply named Prairie Ale and Plus Tôt L'État, their collaboration with Florida's Saint Somewhere. I feel pretty confident in recommending just about anything you can get your hands on.
We can't wait to try newer releases Funky Galaxy, 'Merica and Pirate Noir. Keep an eye out!

About the author: Mike Reis is a Certified Cicerone and Co-Director of Beer at the Monk's Kettle and Abbot's Cellar restaurants in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter @beerspeaks or find him behind a pint near you.

More from Mike Reis

How to Identify Bad Flavors in Your Beer
How to Identify Yeast Flavors in Beer: Esters, Phenols, and Alcohols
How to Identify Oats, Rye, Wheat, Corn, and Rice in Your Beer
How to Identify Hops in Your Beer: The Three C's
Have Beer Weeks Grown Too Big?
The Best Places to Drink Beer Outside in San Francisco and the East Bay
Aging Beer: 6 Tips to Get You Started
Hops From a Land Down Under

[Photographs: Christopher Lehault]

Like most things in New Jersey, the beer scene often gets a bad rap. Sandwiched between Philadelphia and New York—two craft beer monoliths in their own right—and burdened with antiquated liquor laws, the Garden State bears the brunt of as many beer jokes as those that mention highway exits or garbage dumps.

But New Jersey is not all fists pumps and Real Housewives. Thanks to public demand, recent legislation has eased up on microbreweries, brewpubs, and growler sales to allow beer options in New Jersey to improve significantly. Want a taste of the new New Jersey beer scene? Check out these 5 brews.

Bolero Snort Blackhorn American Black Lager

New Jersey's newest craft brewery, Bolero Snort, is the result of two passionate home brewers gone pro. Their flagship, Blackhorn, is a full-bodied, powerfully toasty American schwarzbier with black IPA tendencies. At the core is a rich malt character but beyond the obvious is a lingering bitterness and hint of citrusy American hops with a clean lager finish.

Carton G.O.R.P.

Carton Brewing won us over with their hoppy, sessionable Kolsch—just right for the sticky summer ahead. But the most unique beer they make may be the one called G.O.R.P.

Short for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts, this "Trail Ale" is a big, dark sipper with a warm finish. There are dominant nutty notes of powdered peanut along with hints of raisin and other dark fruits. But there are also touches of coffee, dark malt, and even a bit of licorice in this complex brew. Is it a Belgian Dark Strong Ale? Perhaps an Imperial Porter? Nope, its just G.O.R.P.

River Horse Oatmeal Milk Stout

A trail-blazer on the NJ Beer Scene, Lambertville's River Horse Brewery has been turning out craft beer in the Garden States since the mid-90s. A recent addition to their line-up, their Oatmeal Milk Stout is amalgamation of two creamy, full bodied stout styles. Layers of silky-smooth oats atop luscious milk sugar result in an indulgent brew with a velvety, chocolate finish perfect for indulging.

Kane Head High IPA

It is surprising difficult to find a classic, West coast-style IPA brewed on the East coast. We tend to favor malty balance and a bit of yeast complexity over the lean grain bills and aggressive hopping techniques that characterize the famous IPAs of the West. But Kane's Head High IPA is the hop fix that Jerseyans has been looking for. Utilizing just about every "C" hop in the books—Columbus, Chinook, Cascade, Centennial and Citra—through late kettle additions, whirlpooling and dry hopping, Head High is a powerful IPA with big citrus, tropical, and pine notes and a prominent bitter finish to satisfy even the most bitter beer geek.

Flying Fish Exit 4

The original flagship of Flying Fish's limited-edition "exit series," Exit 4 is a homage to the brewery's hometown. Exit 4 is braced by a rolling, bitter finish. Fuller bodied than a traditional Belgian tripel, this beer finds favor among Belgian-style and American beer lovers alike.

Do you have a favorite Jersey-brewed beer? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

About the author: Christopher Lehault is a New Jersey based homebrewer, cider evangelist and craft beer documentarian. Follow him on twitter at @idrunkthat.

[Photographs: Sean Buchan]

Irish Red Ales have become more popular in the United States than in their home country, where stouts and porters reign supreme. But the style didn't gain traction in the US until the mid-80s, when Coors bought the brand name Killian's Irish Red and began marketing it in the States. Of course, craft brewers have taken the style a long way since then, so you shouldn't judge the category by those "fond" memories of drinking Killian's on a porch in college when the thought of Natural Light made you sick (was it just me?)

Today's Irish Red Ales can be amber or dark red, with a light malt aroma, medium-rich body, and flavors of roasted barley and caramel. Hops additions are traditionally light-handed in these brews, offering just enough to complement the carmel sweetness from the malt bill, though of course some hop-loving brewers play with amplifying the hop flavors. Creating a balanced Irish Red is a true test for brewers: mistakes have little room to hide. These ales would be a great addition to any St. Patty's Day party—just don't try to add green food coloring.

Boulevard Irish Ale

This Kansas City, Missouri-made ale pours a beautiful dark red with a thick off-white head. Unlike many Irish reds on the market, Boulevard chose to bottle condition this brew, allowing for pleasing carbonation and further flavor maturation from bottling date to time of consumption. The scent is mellow, with hints of biscuity malt and floral hops. This beer is incredibly balanced, starting sweet with caramel malt and a light bitterness from another wave of floral hops. The true beauty of this beer is how unified its flavors are, even though six pale and roasted malts and five hop varieties that have to play nice. The finish is dry with lingering pale malt flavors. A truly well-made red ale worth seeking out.

Lone Tree Acres O' Green Irish Red

Lone Tree Brewing Company in Lone Tree, Colorado just began bottling their core lineup of beers a few months back and we're pleased that this was one of them. Dark amber and medium-bodied Acres O' Green offers an aroma rich in caramel, cereal grains, and a subtle peaty smokiness. The flavor swirls with coffee and toffee, with hints of spicy yeast and earthy hops. Though this beer finishes a little sweet, we quickly polished off the bomber of this 6.0% ABV ale.

Casco Bay Riptide Red

We'd heard great things about this Maine-brewed Irish Red, and were excited to give this beer a try. It pours a stunning dark red with a thick, tight white head. The aroma was a bit more pronounced than the other beers we sampled, all roasted grain and citrusy hops. The beer is malt forward with lots of caramel and toffee and a light earthy bitterness. The hops showed their face again in the finish, as each sip of Riptide concludes with a dry hoppiness. After trying Riptide Red Ale, it's easy to see why this is Casco Bay's flagship beer!

Of course, there are many other great examples of the style, including Three Floyds Brian Boru, Great Lakes Conway's Irish Ale, Alpine McIlhenney's Irish Red, and Goose Island Kilgubbin Red Ale. Do you have a favorite you'll be drinking this weekend? Let us know in the comments!

About the Author: Sean Buchan covers the Denver craft beer scene for Denver off the Wagon in addition to doing freelance photography for Colorado breweries. You can also view his beer photography on his blog, Beertographer, here.

Samples were provided for review consideration from Boulevard Brewing Company and Casco Bay Brewing Company.

VIEW SLIDESHOW: We Taste the Lost Abbey Ultimate Box Set

[Photographs: Wes Rowe]

We first heard of the Lost Abbey Ultimate Box Set about a year ago, when SE contributor Jonathan Moxey happened to be in California for the Track #2 release party. He chatted with Lost Abbey's Tomme Arthur about the project then, and we wrote off the super-rare beer collection as something we'd never get a chance to taste.

What is the Lost Abbey Ultimate Box Set? The famed San Marcos, CA brewery released a different small batch beer every month of 2012. Each beer was designed as a tribute to a different rock anthem from the 70's or 80's that invoked heaven and hell, with label art from Sean Dominguez. They produced about 100 cases of each classic-rock inspired brew, and released 350 of the bottles in the brewery tasting room for on-site consumption only. (No Ebay! No trading!) After some more were served at beer events, the remaining bottles of each beer were saved for the Ultimate Box Set—no bottles were ever released individually for distribution or sale.

Everyone who went to the brewery to taste the newly released Tracks was entered into a lottery, and 500 of those folks won the chance to reserve a complete box set, which sold for $450. About fifty other people were able to score one, as well, and the rest of the boxes? Well, they went to people like Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, All About Beer magazine, and...us.

We've seen some cool booze packaging in our time, but this takes the cake. The set arrived in a deluxe metal road case, filled with all 13 beers (there was a surprise 'bonus track' in the end) and a print of each beer's label art. (There was also a 'back stage pass, which we'll totally wear to beer events someday.) Secured in an album cover describing each brew was a intricately etched record/art piece, carved with the Lost Abbey logo and philosophy: In Illa Brettanomyces Nos Fides (roughly, In the Wild Yeast We Believe), which appears on a sign over the barrel room.

Over the past month, we've cracked into each beer, tasting them slowly: something this rare shouldn't be rushed. There were the sour beers you might think of if you're a Lost Abbey fan, as well as some intense stouts, spiced beers, a barleywine...all aged in wine, bourbon, brandy, or cognac barrels before bottling.

What did we think? The best beers in the set were truly incredible—in general, the sour fruit beers got us more excited than the stouts and other styles. There were beers that really knocked our socks off, but there were also others that missed the mark. With so much hype surrounding a super-rare release, expectations were really high, and not every beer in this set is something we'd buy for crazy-money on eBay (you really shouldn't do that anyway, right?)

Check out our thoughts on all 13 tracks in the slideshow above » (Warning, some label art might be considered NSFW)

The flipside.

Did you taste any of the Lost Abbey rock-inspired beers as they were released? What did you think?

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. She lives in San Francisco. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

Beers provided as press samples for review consideration.

[Photo: Jen Muehlbauer]

Opening a brewery in Oregon seems like a proverbial bringing-sand-to-the-desert gambit. However, Oregonians' thirst for quality beer seems to know no bounds, and thriving new breweries spring up every year. Here are three born less than two years ago they're buzzing about in Portlandia and beyond.

The Commons Brewery (Portland)

A lot of breweries' origin stories include some variation on the "homebrewer in the garage" theme. Mike Wright, owner of The Commons, took it one step further by licensing his garage, a 1-barrel nano brewhouse that was known as Beetje Brewery. Beetje is Flemish for "little," which 31.5 gallon batches certainly are.

Having a commercial brewery attached to your house sounds groovy in theory, but after a year Wright found that his part-time venture had outgrown the garage. It was time for a bigger location and a new business plan for what was essentially a whole different operation. In December 2011, Wright moved to 7-barrel brew system in a 1500 square foot warehouse and named his new brewery The Commons. Recipes needed tweaking, but Wright must have adjusted things well because The Commons quickly started winning awards in both drinkers' choice popularity contests and official blind judgings.

The Commons' beers, with a few exceptions like the 9% Belgian dark ale Little Brother, aren't hop-forward, high-ABV, or extreme in any way. This makes them a tough sell for some adrenaline-seeking beer geeks but a welcome addition to the fridge for others. One of their two year-round beers is Urban Farmhouse Ale, a mellow, floral saison at 5.3%.

The other is a bit more unusual: Flemish Kiss, a barrel-aged pale ale with the wild yeast brettanomyces bruxellensis. Brett beers are sometimes shorthanded as "sour," but brett alone produces more of a dry, leathery, vaguely funky flavor than outright tartness. Is it tricky having a barrel-aged wild ale in the year-round line-up? "Urban Farmhouse is about a 4 week turn around with bottle conditioning and Flemish Kiss is more like 14 to 16 weeks before it's market ready," said Wright. "That's relatively short for a barrel aged beer, but that's the whole idea with Flemish Kiss—just a kiss of the brett." The result is a dry, balanced, ever so slightly hoppy brew that dedicated funk fans could safely share with more cautious drinking buddies.

The Commons will be adding capacity, doing more barrel-aging, and spreading its wares to California and Washington in 2013. For now, look for it in the Portland metro area, Boise, and British Columbia. You might need to look hard: The Commons is still little compared to the demand for it.

Gigantic Brewing Company (Portland)

The taproom at Gigantic Brewing Company [Photo: Emily Headen]

Gigantic Brewing, founded in 2012, is run by well-known local brewers and has some of the coolest beer labels ever. In Portland, however, you'd better bring good beer to the party, because personality and pedigree will only get you so far. Perhaps equally importantly for Portland's novelty seekers, Gigantic brought a lot of different good beer to the party.

Gigantic's one year-round beer is an IPA. "It's practically a law that you have to brew an IPA in Oregon," said co-owner Ben Love. When Love and co-owner Van Havig were designing the recipe, they each wrote down hops they wanted to use in it and the big reveal showed they agreed on all but one (for the record: Centennial, Simcoe, Cascade, and Crystal). The resulting brew is a flavorful citrus bomb with a touch of floral.

All Gigantic's non-IPA beers, six so far, are seasonal one-offs that may or may not ever return. The roasty Time Traveler porter disappears from the glass quickly and, in another universe, could be a six-pack beer giving Anchor Porter a run for its money. The End of Reason is more experimental, blending sweet caramel flavors with belgian yeast to produce a satisfying 8.3% beer dessert.

Gigantic's nifty labels are helped along by its artistic director, Havig's childhood friend Rob Reger, who created Emily The Strange. He designed the label for Gigantic IPA and helps recruit other artists to do a different label for every release, including choosing a pithy quote. The IPA cites George Clinton: "Free your mind and your ass will follow." If there's another way to drink a porter with a label designed by the guy who did the Dead Kennedys logo, I don't know it.

If you visit, Gigantic's 24-seat taproom has a large patio for spillover on dry days and features art from the designers of Gigantic's current beer labels. And while the Gigantic name is sarcastic, springing from the owners discussing how they were "never going to be some gigantic f*cking brewery," increased distribution is coming. In May, look for 22-ounce bottles of Gigantic in California and greater Chicago. It's already in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, and Vermont. The owners' goal is to stay small enough to work in the brewhouse and also have time for travel, said Love. "It's about having a successful brewery, but also having a successful personal life."

Solera Brewery (Parkdale)

Solera Brewery sits in a little mountain town 17 miles south of Hood River, in a cozily renovated 1930s movie theater. It opened in 2012, taking over a space that had been empty since the previous occupant closed its doors and put the brewpub on Craigslist in 2010. The brewery is remote, but if you build it they will drink.

"Our customers are a mix of local orchardists, Portland beer geeks, families, and outdoor enthusiasts," said co-owner and brewer Jason Kahler, who formerly brewed for several outfits in comparatively bustling Hood River. "Some of our patrons ride their horses to the pub while others bring their goats."

Solera's incredible view of Mount Hood would probably be enough of a draw for many people no matter how the beer tasted, but Kahler is not one to coast. For one, he's putting a coolship (for open fermentation) in the pear orchard behind the pub this fall. Even the name of the brewery is ambitious, referencing a barrel-aging and blending process more commonly used for liquor. Kahler hopes to have the brewery's namesake solera barrels in use this spring.

Solera has a year-round IPA and, like The Commons, it has boldly made one of its flagships a sour, the 3.2% Valley Weisse berlinerweisse. The other six taps are always rotating with offerings from smoked imperial porter to grisette. A recent one-off was Soul Apricot, fermented with house yeasts and Lactobacillus strains. It was dry, with a well-balanced tartness, and the 9% ABV was dangerously well-masked. The fresh apricot flavor was noticeable but delicate. In a way it's too bad Solera never repeats a rotating beer, because everyone should get a chance to try this one.

Solera self-distributes mostly in the Oregon's Columbia River Gorge area, with occasional sales to beer bars in Portland. Its 7-barrel brewery is maxed out, so don't expect that distribution range to dramatically increase anytime soon. You might as well visit the brewpub someday and enjoy that epic alpine view along with your funky beer.

Knowing Oregon, three more amazing new breweries have opened in the time it took you to read this piece. Who are your favorite young Cascadians? Let us know in the comments.

About the author: Jen Muehlbauer wrote about beer in Boston and LA before settling down in the promised land of the Bay Area in 2009. She also tends bar, teaches beer classes, is a BJCP-certified beer judge, and occasionally makes a passable batch of homebrew. Follow her on Twitter at @EastBayBeerJen.

Beer samples provided for review consideration.

[Photographs: Sean Buchan]

Big stouts are a staple in the American craft brewing scene. These robust, flavorful, high alcohol beers are typically released in the winter months, and each year sees a growing number of variations on the style. From the historic Russian Imperial Stout to modern takes that don't fit traditional style guidelines (see: Imperial Oatmeal Stout with spices), these dark brews have been filling snifters, slumbering in barrels, and warming gullets for centuries.

Every year new and old breweries alike release stouts that haven't seen the light of day. Some hit the mark, others... don't. Here we've pulled together 5 of the best new(ish) stouts from across the country. If you see any of these sitting on the shelves, we whole-heartedly recommend you grab them.

Perennial Artisan Ales Abraxas

Abraxas just celebrated its 2nd annual release in November, so it's not brand new, but we wanted to make sure the rapidly-rising Perennial Artisan Ales got on your radar. Aged on ancho chiles, cinnamon sticks, vanilla beans, and cacao nibs, this spiced Imperial Oatmeal Stout is a punch to the palate. The aroma provides strong notes of cacao and mint leaves with little trace of the 10% ABV. The mouthfeel is fantastic, thanks to a hefty amount of flaked oats. The first sip goes down like a melted mint chocolate chip ice cream and finishes with a moderate amount of heat from the chiles. Seek this one out if you can—if you're really lucky, perhaps you snagged a bottle of Barrel Aged Abraxas at the brewery-only release last month (unfortunately we weren't).

New Belgium Imperial Coffee Chocolate Stout

Another fine example of the beer churned out in New Belgium's Lips of Faith series, Imperial Coffee Chocolate Stout succeeds where many coffee stouts fail. This big beer (10% ABV) has a huge coffee and dark chocolate aroma—it's like walking into a coffee roaster that also happens to be baking a chocolate cake. The flavors follows suit, bringing on more coffee and chocolate with a moderate roast level and mild alcohol burn. It finishes sweet, but not too sweet that you don't want to dive in for another sip (or glass). Here's to hoping New Belgium catches our hints and makes this an annual release.

Elevation Beer Company - Oil Man

Elevation Beer Company of Pagosa Springs, Colorado is relatively new to the scene, opening in May of 2012, but they're already passed the 1,000 barrels/year mark (they hit 935 barrels in the 7 months they were open in 2012). Think that's impressive? Well, they are currently underway with an expansion that will allow them to brew 4,000 barrels a year. Oil Man is the newest member of their Double Black Series, an 11% ABV Russian Imperial Stout aged in Breckenridge Bourbon barrels for 7+ months. This stout pours black as night with a light tan head and notes of dark fruit, roasted malts, and bourbon leaping out of the glass. Lots of bourbon up front on the palate with the accompanying heat, followed by chocolate, roast, caramel, and an oaky dry finish.

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout Cherry Rye

The newest addition to the vaunted Bourbon County Brand Stout line, Cherry Rye is the product of aging their base stout in rye whiskey barrels and adding in whole Michigan cherries. It pours dark, but with a slight red hue and a rapidly dissipating head. Cherry Rye smells like chocolate cherry cake with some bourbon drizzled over the top. The sweetness and slight tartness of the cherries pairs well with the rye spices. Definitely a sipper at 13.7% ABV, this beer was all but made to pair with a slice of cherry pie. Now to get this beer on tap at every late-night diner across the country...

Odell Brewing Company - Lugene

Odell's tribute to the farmer that picks up their spent grain to feed his dairy cows, Lugene is brewed with milk chocolate and milk sugar (lactose). A subtle nose of roasted grains, coffee, chocolate, and sweetness rises out of the thin tan head. It has a nice thick mouthfeel, almost creamy, similar to what you'd expect from a glass of milk and Hershey's syrup. It doesn't quite taste like an adult chocolate milk, but it's not far off. There's quite a lot of sweetness to this stout, almost like cotton candy, but manages to finish dry with a slight bitterness. We're happy Odell decided to add this one to their seasonal releases!

About the Author: Sean Buchan covers the Denver craft beer scene for Denver off the Wagon in addition to doing freelance photography for Colorado breweries. You can also view his beer photography on his blog, Beertographer, here.

Samples were provided for review consideration from Perennial Artisan Ales, New Belgium Brewing Company, Elevation Beer, and Goose Island.

[Photo: Eric Pietras]

It's hard to throw a bottle in California without hitting someone who wants to start a new brewery. No one can predict which fledgling breweries will succeed and which will go the way of all those defunct '90s brewpubs, but there are a few whose odds seem much better than most.

The following three breweries are too new to be household names but have gained a devoted local following. Spoiler alert: their beers live up to the buzz. And if you haven't heard the buzz yet, you will.

Heretic Brewing

Pittsburg/Fairfield (northeast of San Francisco)
To a certain breed of homebrewer, Jamil Zainasheff was a rock star brewer before his brewery, Heretic, released its first kegs in mid-2011. His bona fides included hosting a popular radio show on The Brewing Network, co-authoring a book on yeast with White Labs founder Chris White, and winning approximately three bajillion ribbons at homebrew competitions. It's a sad fact that outstanding homebrewers don't always make a smooth transition to commercial brewing, but fingers were crossed all over the world that this one could.

Hate the guy if you must, but Zainasheff and his co-brewer Chris Kennedy have been busting out kegs and bottles that meet those high expectations. The piny red ale Evil Twin begat the chocolately Shallow Grave porter which begat the dank 8% IPA Evil Cousin. Their forays into barrel-aging, like the chardonnay barrel-aged Belgian golden Worry, have also been successful with beer nerds and casual drinkers alike. The only Heretic beer I've ever heard Average Joes diss at the bar—the sessionable, delicious, rye-doused Gramarye—won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival a few months ago. So there.

Heretic's Facebook page is always full of homebrewers clamoring for distribution to their states. They may have a bit of a wait, but Heretic's coming move to a larger brewery will help. In the meantime, you can find their beer all over California, in Idaho, and oddly, in Australia. They're sending a bit of beer to Japan this year to see how that goes.

So what's their secret? "Do it right or don't do it," said Zainasheff, "Dump it if it is wrong." If that's heresy, tie me to a stake.

Sante Adairius Rustic Ales

Beers at Sante Adairius [Photograph: Anders Norman]

Capitola (near Santa Cruz)
It's easy for a jaded beer fan to roll her eyes at limited-run beers you can only get at a tiny brewery with a weird name. Hear me out, because Sante Adairius, helmed by a married couple named Tim and Adair (get it?) should be on all California beer-drinking radars.

The taps at the Belgian-heavy brewery rotate frequently, so there's no guarantee any particular beer will ever be available. You do have a decent chance of running into their excellent house saison, Anäis (named after a friend's daughter, not the writer). They've also got an it's-so-crazy-it-works smoked saison, Fumare, inspired by speculation about how farmhouse ales might have tasted back in the days of wood-fired wort heating. And You Me is Berliner Weisse with lactobacillus and brettanomyces, a great interpretation of a style many American breweries bungle. There's also a limited bottling program for Sante Adairius' 16e series (beer judge in-joke) and those offerings change often, too. The one available for our visit was Two Pilots, a smooth, lightly tart Belgian golden aged in both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay oak barrels and fermented with wine yeast.

This may sound a little fancy, but owner Tim Clifford is down-to-earth and the brewery was built on a budget, not a trust fund. "There is nothing automated in our brew house save two pumps for transferring; everything is done by hand." said Clifford, who is also part-owner of the homebrew store Seven Bridges Cooperative. "Any home brewer with a modicum of experience could walk into our brewery and figure out how to use our system."

When they're able to bring beer outside their taproom, their Santa Cruz neighbors will be the first accounts. Then they'll go to a few lucky places in the Bay Area, and then we'll see. Bay folks should note that in mid-January Sante Adairius brewed a collaboration saison at Triple Rock in Berkeley, which is a far cry closer than Capitola. On the other hand, Santa Cruz sure is a nice place to visit, and now you have an additional excuse.

Societe Brewing

San Diego
Quick! Name two breweries in California with a huge cult following. Chances are the founders of Societe have worked at one or both of them. Travis Smith formerly brewed for Russian River and The Bruery, and met his business partner Doug Constantiner at the latter. With resumes like that, Smith and Consantiner's start-up Societe was on the tongues of beer groupies long before they ever produced a pint.

The excitement was not misguided. Societe's double IPA The Pupil does hop-happy San Diego proud with a crazy blend of Nelson Sauvin, Citra, and Centennial hops. At 8.9% ABV and bitter, this is not a session beer, but IPA lovers sure could drink too much of it at once. Societe doesn't just do hops, though. Fans of strong Belgians will enjoy The Widow, with its dark, fruity malts and a bit of roast.

They also brew a few other IPAs, some other Belgian styles, and an imperial stout—but don't expect wild experimental one-offs or kitchen-sink beers. "Travis and I got into beer because we like the flavor of beer," said Constantiner. "We're not out to make some crazy Double IPA Tripel with exotic herbs and fruits just to do it, or to make a beer that has never been brewed before."

Societe does not currently bottle, so trying it requires visiting their taphouse, hunting in San Diego bars, or bribing a SoCal friend to mail you one of their awesome stainless steel growlers. They currently only distribute in San Diego county, but hope to get more fermenters and send beer to LA and San Francisco. Bay Area drinkers can sample their wares at the Brewing Network Winter Brews festival in Concord on January 26—hopefully a sign that statewide distribution is on the way at some point.

Choosing just three of the many promising new breweries in California was nearly impossible. What are your favorites of the ones we didn't talk about this time? Let us know in the comments.

About the author: Jen Muehlbauer wrote about beer in Boston and LA before settling down in the promised land of the Bay Area in 2009. She also tends bar, teaches beer classes, is a BJCP-certified beer judge, and occasionally makes a passable batch of homebrew. Follow her on Twitter at @EastBayBeerJen.

[Photo: Maggie Hoffman]

Drink options for celiacs and those who choose to avoid gluten have gotten better in recent years; once upon a time there was really only wine, but now there's the exciting artisanal cider movement and more and more gluten-free beer. Back in 2010, we could only find a handful of decent bottles available. We were really impressed by Omission from Widmer Brothers, which was released in early 2012. And Harvester Brewing offers another Oregon-brewed option; the brewery, which brewed its first batch in November 2011, focuses exclusively on gluten-free beers, all using roasted chestnuts in addition to frequently-seen GF beer ingredients like sorghum.

We tried their pale ale, dark ale, and red ale, which are available in Oregon and Washington for now. The dark ale uses dark-roasted chestnuts from a McMinnville, OR farm to provide a deep caramely-roasty flavor, along with certified gluten free oats, sorghum, cane sugar, tapioca malodextrin, and Oregon-grown hops. The beer has a nice orangey hop flavor, but the bitter edge of sorghum lingers on the finish. Try this one with walnuts or aged cheeses (or a nice thick pork chop.)

The best of the three brews, though, was the pale ale, which has a heavier dose of Nugget, Cascade, and Meridian hops, offering a mix of orange-like and piney pot-like hop flavors which covers over some of the difficult flavors gluten-free beer can offer. It offers hints of lemon marmalade and mango chutney, and would work well with curries.

We were less convinced by the red ale, which was quite earthy and offered a smoky sweetness and char on the finish that didn't mesh quite coherently with the rest of the beer's flavor. We'd be curious to try the IPA, since we far preferred Harvester's hoppier options.

Have you tried the beers from Harvester Brewing? Any other gluten-free brews to recommend?

About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is the editor of Serious Eats: Drinks. She lives in San Francisco. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.

[Photographs: Sean Buchan]

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, and the end of the year is fast approaching. The holidays are stressful enough without having to worry about finding the perfect beer for your Christmas party (or simply a night next to the fireplace), so we did the work for you. After a blind tasting of 25 well-regarded winter warmers and Christmas ales, we've compiled a list of our favorites.

Christmas beers have their own cult-like following but often cover a broad range of styles. Winter warmers are the most common, followed by old ales, and the occasional odd-ball like Scotch ales, brown ales, dubbels, and Belgian strong dark ales. The spice additions are as varied as the styles themselves—we tried brews with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and spruce tips One thing they do have in common? Alcohol... and lots of it. With the average beer in this tasting weighing in at 7.5% ABV, these beers earn their warming titles.

Hoppin' Frog Frosted Frog Christmas Ale

Though none of the beers came out a unanimous winner (11 people just can't agree), this was ultimately the highest-scoring brew—we love Frosted Frog. An 8.6% Winter Warmer brewed with cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, this beer smelled and tasted like Christmas morning.

Great Lakes Brewing Company Christmas Ale

Another strong offering from the Midwest, this beer lived up to its cultlike following. Honey, ginger, and cinnamon work well to complement a slightly bready malt profile. Like a spiced cookie in a glass!

Anderson Valley Winter Solstice

This holiday offering just might convince those who don't believe good beer comes in cans. Winter Solstice has fantastic spice and malt balance in the aroma and flavor—cinnamon, vanilla, and caramel meld together without a hitch.

Highland Brewing Company - Cold Mountain Winter Ale

Named after a North Carolina mountain peak, Cold Mountain was one of the lowest-alcohol beers we sampled at 5.2%. It proves that you can produce an incredibly robust and flavorful winter ale while keeping the beer sessionable. It starts sweet with a huge hit of vanilla and hazelnut, but finishes clean and dry, readying the palate for the next sip.

Schlafly Brewing Company Christmas Ale

Schlafly, who recently won our pumpkin beer blind tasting, didn't hesitate to throw the kitchen sink into their Christmas Ale. Brewed with honey, orange peel, juniper berries, ginger root, cardamom, and cloves, this 8.0% seasonal beer is unlike any other. The orange peel and cloves are especially prevalent on the nose, and the flavors manage to pull off a delicate balance of caramel and biscuit malts.

Sweet Water Brewing Company Festive Ale

Though Atlanta may have milder winter weather than, say, Minnesota, this big boy is ready for a bitterly cold evening by the fire. At 8.5%, Festive Ale did just enough of the 'warming' of the back of our throats without going straight to our heads. This brew stands out with dominant chocolate and coffee notes, plus a hint of vanilla, ginger, and spices.

Laurelwood Brewing Company Vinter Varmer

Laurelwood (of Portland, Oregon) is an organic brewery, and their Vinter Varmer is world-class (literally... it owns the rare perfect 100 rating on BeerAdvocate). In typical Pacific Northwest fashion this Winter Warmer is loaded with hops, giving it an earthy and nutty nose while balancing the sweet malt profile.

And here are a few suggestions for those who like a little whiskey in their beer. These were our favorite barrel-aged Christmas beers.

Hoppin' Frog Barrel Aged Frosted Frog

This was our favorite barrel-aged offering—a brief stay in first-use bourbon barrels added a pleasant booziness along with notes of vanilla and oak to a beer we already loved. Not too big on bourbon? Then try their Extended Aged Frosted Frog which sat in second use bourbon barrels for a year. Less bourbon, more oak, still delicious.

Great Divide Brewing Company Barrel Aged Hibernation

This beast is the product of aging Hibernation Old Ale in Stranahan's Whiskey barrels for 9 months. A beautiful medley of caramel malts, toffee, dark fruit, brown sugar and whiskey. At 12.4% ABV, this bottle is meant to be shared on a cold night with close friends.

Of course, everyone's palate is different—which was the best Christmas beer you've tried in 2012? Which winter ales should we check out in the future?

About the Author: Sean Buchan covers the Denver craft beer scene for Denver off the Wagon in addition to doing freelance photography for Colorado breweries. You can also view his beer photography on his blog, Beertographer, here.

All beers tasted: Anchor Our Special Ale (sample provided for review consideration), Cigar City Winter Warmer Winter Warmer (sample), Fullsteam First Frost 2011 (sample), Highland Cold Mountain Winter Ale (sample), Laurelwood Vinter Varmer (sample), Great Lakes Christmas Ale, Widmer Brothers Brrr and Barrel Aged Brrrbon '12 (samples), Hoppin Frog Frosted Frog, Barrel Aged Frosted Frog, and Extended Barrel Aged Frosted Frog (samples), Upslope Christmas Ale (sample), Fort Collins Big Shot (sample), Breckenridge Christmas Ale (sample), Great Divide Hibernation and Barrel Aged Hibernation (samples), Anderson Valley Winter Solstice (sample), Goose Island Christmas Ale (sample), Full Sail Wassail (sample), Fat Heads Holly Jolly (sample), Deschutes Jubelale (sample), Troegs Mad Elf (sample), 21st Amendment Fireside Chat (sample), Avery Old Jubilation, Schlafly Christmas Ale (sample), Thirsty Dog 12 Dogs of Christmas (sample), Bells Christmas Ale (sample), Odell Isolation, Sweet Water Festive Ale (sample).

[Photo: Jen Muehlbauer]

I'll drink a stout any day of the year, but it's impossible to argue with dark beer in winter. Considering stresses that can accompany December, you're forgiven for reaching for stouts with a bit more nerve-soothing booze than usual. Enter imperial stout, or as I like to describe it to Irish stout loyalists: "three Guinnesses in one glass."

Since legend has it highly alcoholic stout was originally produced for Catherine the Great, the original full name is "Russian imperial stout." (Some say there's a difference between stouts labeled "imperial" vs. "Russian imperial," but I don't have time to argue about it and neither should you.) The first imperial stouts were English, and Washington state is credited with producing the first American version in 1984, but California makes some of today's best.

Ask the Internet for a list of the best imperial stouts and you may find yourself hunting down beers that are both limited-edition and crazy expensive—and perhaps aged in a booze barrel past the point where a novice can tell it's still beer. I love Firestone Walker Parabola and Deschutes The Abyss, and it's always pretty sweet (literally and figuratively) when someone pops a bottle of Bruery Black Tuesday in my presence, but let's talk about more everyday treats this time. The most expensive of the stouts below will barely scrape the $10-per-bomber mark at a reasonable store and you won't have to wait in line for any of them.

Imperial stout is my favorite beer style to cellar, but go ahead and drink any of these tonight. Letting them warm up out of the fridge for a few minutes before drinking is enough of a time investment for me.

North Coast Old Rasputin

The bearded Russian who wouldn't die is the gateway imperial stout for many, but that's only because North Coast is available pretty widely around the country. But believe this: Old Rasputin is in no way a training wheels beer. It's seriously roasty and hoppy (75 IBUs), with a long, dry, lingering bitter coffee finish. It's not hot and boozy despite it's 9% ABV, and while "balanced" is the wrong word, it's not too much of anything, either. This will be among the easiest big stout for new beer fans to track down, and novelty-seeking beer hunters should do themselves a favor and revisit this 1996-born classic.

Drake's Drakonic

Drake's, a Bay Area favorite slowly making inroads in other parts of California, is mostly known for its hop monsters. Drakonic, though it has a moderate hop bitterness, is all about the malt. Neither espresso-ish nor desserty, Drakonic hits it right down the middle as a dry, roasty, robust yet approachable imperial stout. There's a touch of caramel and licorice to keep things interesting along with the usual coffee and chocolate, and it's all in good balance for a beer that's almost 9%. If I was throwing a one-night imperial stout tasting with all six of the beers in this article, I'd serve this first.

Sierra Nevada Narwhal

This mega-craft brewery could coast on its flagship lineup, but instead they give us presents like Narwhal, newly released in October. Unsweetened chocolate, coffee beans, and warming alcohol are all present and accounted for but none dominate. A clean hop bitterness with a long, tingly finish tie it all together. Like Old Rasputin, this is available in 4-packs of 12-ounce bottles instead of imperial stout's dominant paradigm, the bomber. Forget the after-dinner espresso, just drink one (or two) of these.

Cismontane Black's Dawn

Coffee coffee joy joy! This relatively new coastal SoCal brewery has produced an excellent breakfast beer, if that's how you roll. Many stouts contain roasty malts that evoke coffee flavors, but this one also contains fair trade beans. I'm guessing this would make a fine entry-level imperial stout for the coffee snob in your life. Black's Dawn comes in a 16-ounce bottle, making it a wise choice for solo tasters who struggle to get through a 22-ouncer. It's also the poster child for how much a beer can change and evolve as it warms up, so sip slowly.

Port Santa's Little Helper

Santa's Little Hangover...er, Helper...has been making merry since 1997. It's among the more chewy, viscous stouts on this list and the one that most requires a glass of water alongside it. From the ridiculously huge head (pour carefully) to the smooth finish, this SoCal sipper is not foolin' around. The label gets bonus Christmas cheer points for its depiction of a shadowy Santa and Rudolph enjoying a beer at an an elf-manned bar. A bourbon barrel-aged version comes out in July—look for Santa at the same bar in his boxers.

Ballast Point Victory At Sea

OK, Victory at Sea is technically an imperial porter, but close enough for government work. I don't usually dig vanilla beers—they tend to be unbalanced and make me feel like an alcoholic grandmother slugging a bottle of vanilla extract in the pantry. This is an exception. Perhaps the addition of cold brewed San Diego coffee steers this one away from cloying and into amazing, and the thick, velvety body doesn't hurt. Though Victory at Sea is not overly sweet, the vanilla flavor does evoke ice cream, and you could make a much worse choice for the base of a beer float.

Of course there are many other great beers that could be included on this list. Tell us: what are your favorite imperial stouts from California or beyond?

About the author: Jen Muehlbauer wrote about beer in Boston and LA before settling down in the promised land of the Bay Area in 2009. She also tends bar, teaches beer classes, is a BJCP-certified beer judge, and occasionally makes a passable batch of homebrew. Follow her on Twitter at @EastBayBeerJen.

[Photographs: Sean Buchan]

Autumn in Colorado is just about as wacky a season as you can find, with temperatures fluctuating between the 20s and the 70s...occasionally on the same day. So you'll need a variety of beer styles in your fridge. While you may crave a robust porter when it's approaching the freezing point, a nice fresh IPA is more palatable on a surprise sunny afternoon. Here are five local brews we've been enjoying, whatever Fall's weather brings.

Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale Ale

Wet-hopped brews are a must-drink each autumn, since they're released shortly after the annual hop harvest. To make this brew, Great Divide overnight ships hops from the Pacific Northwest straight to the brewery, and immediately adds the aromatic cones to the brew kettle. The result is a bright, grassy pale ale with loads of flavor, and pretty light bitterness.

Left Hand Warrior IPA

Another excellent wet hop beer, but this one features locally-grown Warrior and Cascade hops delivered by freight from Rising Sun Farms in Paonia, Colorado. The aroma is a terrific blend of pine resin and caramel from the malt, giving way to a balanced earthy and grassy flavor with a slightly sweet finish. These fresh-hopped beers are best enjoyed fresh, so your time is running out.

Funkwerks Scepter

From the 2012 GABF "Small Brewing Company of the Year" (and 2 time gold medalist), comes Scepter, a Belgian-style golden ale aged in cognac barrels. The aroma is complex, blending oak, floral, and earthy notes with a pronounced sweetness. The first sip is a punch of apricot and vanilla with a dusting of pepper. Scepter's bitterness fades quickly into a sweet finish with just enough heat to warm you up on a chilly night.

Elevation Signal de Botrange

Named after the highest tower on the highest point of Belgium, Signal de Botrange is a Belgian-style farmous ale aged in Chardonnay barrels. They've only been open to the public for 5 months, but Elevation Brewing Company in Poncha Springs is brewing up some incredibly well-crafted beers. Signal de Botrange is loaded with white wine aroma and flavor, complementing the a bit of spice along with notes of honey and vanilla.

Dry Dock Vanilla Porter

Perfect for those cold nights sitting around a fire, Dry Dock's Vanilla Porter is the s'mores of beer. While the nose is pure vanilla, the flavors are much more complex, hinting at roasty chocolate, vanilla, and a bit of graham cracker (or is that my imagination?), and melding together to create a gently warming bliss.

Have you enjoyed any brews from Colorado this Fall? Leave your recommendations in the comments below!

About the Author: Sean Buchan covers the Denver craft beer scene for Denver off the Wagon in addition to doing freelance photography for Colorado breweries. You can also view his beer photography on his blog, Beertographer, here.

Elevation Signal de Botrange provided as sample for review consideration.

[Photo: Jen Muehlbauer]

The cranberry is an odd fruit, growing on shrubs in bogs and tasting more acidic than sweet. When was the last time you ate a raw one? It is also not the most obvious fruit to add to beer—not surprisingly, it's mostly breweries from cranberry-growing regions that attempt to do so.

It can be a little risky, from a brewing perspective, to add any foreign bodies to a beer. Cranberries present special issues, Sand Creek Brewery's Todd Kreuger told me, because cranberries are very low pH and can stall a beer's fermentation. Lots of healthy yeast is necessary for cranberry beer to not be an underattenuated, sticky-sweet disaster.

But each of these cranberry beers is enjoyable in its own way, and any of them would make a fun addition to your Thanksgiving meal.

Harpoon Grateful Harvest Ale

Harpoon Brewery gets its cranberries from local Massachusetts bogs and donates $1 per six-pack to food banks. Good karma, but how's the beer? The first whiff is strong with more bready malt than fruit. The beer tastes more, well, beery than you might expect, which is a very good thing. It's malty without being too thick and just hoppy enough (25 IBUs) that earthiness balances the cranberry bite. (Those woody Northern Brewer hops aren't my personal favorite, but that's just me.)

This beer, with its drying, lightly puckery finish, would be a good contrast to the sugar-added sweetness of cranberry sauce. It's a little too unusual to be a true session beer, but its relatively light body and 5.9% ABV make it reasonable to have more than one.

New Glarus Serendipity

Usually, Wisconsin's New Glarus Brewing makes a much-anticipated sour brown ale this time of year. The most recent cherry harvest was sparser than usual, so the brewer subbed in apples and cranberries to pick up the fruity slack for a fall-appropriate brew.

This one is the least cranberry-ish of the three beers sampled, and also the sweetest. It evokes old friends like apple juice and cherry Lifesavers. It uses wild yeast and is a little tart, but leans more towards sweet 'n' sour than truly sour. The cranberries come out most in the semi-sweet finish. The tall, waxed, green bottle makes for classy dinner table presentation. Bring Serendipity out with (or as) the Thanksgiving dessert course.

Sand Creek Cranberry Special Ale

Elsewhere in Wisconsin, Sand Creek Brewery gives its local cranberries a solo. You would be forgiven for mistaking this for cranberry juice in a blind tasting—which is fine, because cranberry juice is delicious. It makes sense because the beer is made by adding concentrated cran juice processed in the brewery. The base beer is a mellow, only 5% ABV, and very lightly hopped (10 IBUs), so the fruit flavor dominates. This would be a Thanksgiving crowd pleaser, even for your family members who can never understand why you like beer so much. As a beer dork, I'd personally prefer more hops and malt to challenge the fruit juice, but this was very well done and made me think the town of Black River Falls (population 3622) is lucky to have this brewery.

Have you ever tried cranberry beer? Have any favorite bottles?

About the author: Jen Muehlbauer wrote about beer in Boston and LA before settling down in the promised land of the Bay Area in 2009. She also tends bar, teaches beer classes, is a BJCP-certified beer judge, and occasionally makes a passable batch of homebrew. Follow her on Twitter at @jmuehlbauer.

Samples provided for review consideration.

[Photographs: Corin Hirsch]

Confession: I'm a wine geek posing as a beer writer. Growing up, the only beer I ever saw or smelled was the Schlitz my family drank, or the ubiquitous Rolling Rock at high school parties. So as an adult, I gravitated toward wine with a kind of desperation to find beverages with more nuance and soul.

Things change, of course. As part of my job as a food writer in Vermont—a craft brewing epicenter—I've had to learn the sudsy ropes: how beer is made, how to taste it, and why some brewers devote their lives to it. And over time, my vinous shell began to crack. After a few years, I've actually begun ordering a beer instead of a glass of wine, especially if something sour, funky or ultra-dark is on offer.

Maybe it was inevitable that I found Belgium. This summer, I had a 'Belgium moment' at a beer cocktails seminar in New Orleans. It came in the form of a sip of Hop-Ruiter, a Belgian blond ale imported by Vanberg & DeWulf, and when I was back home, I scoured shelves for more like it. Though our northern climes don't get the same wealth of imports as in other states, over the ensuing weeks I managed to gather a few bottles that are still newish to the U.S. scene, and have deepened my infatuation.

Here are 4 brews that will tempt any wine lover to come over to the malty side.

Mikkeller It's Alive

Yes, it is alive, this bright amber brew that spills into the glass with a lacy head and hazy body. Once the foam dissipates, you're left with a creamy beer with brett-induced funkiness and wine-barrel-induced hints of tropical fruit. This Belgian strong ale was aged in white wine barrels at De Proefbrouwerij. At first what seems like a strange mélange of flavors—orange peel, molasses, and even some pine—begins to seem intensely layered, as if you could never get a full picture of this beer but only catch its changing moods. Even though the hops are gentle, they brush the sides of the mouth in all kinds of welcome ways.

Oude Gueuze Tilquin A l'Ancienne, 2011-2012

I feel exhausted just reading about this gueuze's path to life: it's a blend of three different, spontaneously-fermented lambics, which is then refermented in bottle and unfiltered before it reaches the glass. But that's really a whole lot of non-doing, in a way, and it makes for a beguiling, hazy brew that teases the nose with yeasty, citrusy and sour aromas. It also tastes so unlike anything else, anywhere, ever: almost like a crisp lager shot through with vinegar and tart apples, lemons, and even saffron, and the slightest phantom of maple syrup smack at the end. It messes with the senses, but in a memorable way.

Vicaris Generaal from Brouwerij Dilewyns

A few weeks ago, I briefly profiled three female brewers, and 25-year-old Anne-Catherine Dilewyn was among them. This gorgeous dubbel comes in something akin to a Champagne bottle, and once you pop the cork, its mahoghany-hued body has fig, chocolate, prune and caramel flavors that render this beer a meal in and of itself. Yes, it's malty, but there's enough of a vein of bitterness that keeps each sip lively. I swirled and sniffed as much as I sipped, and the fun, fluffy head stuck around almost the entire time.

Hop-Ruiter from Schelde Brouwerij

Hop-Ruiter has been in the country for nearly two years, but it earns an honorary place as a beer that sparked my Belgian crush. Dry-hopped with American varieties, it's a study in balance from its foamy, lager-like head down to its tingling, peppery feet. Hop-Ruiter tastes elegant and powerful but also somehow fragile, with hints of banana and eucalyptus nestled in amidst its yeasty tang. Its zestiness cuts through fat like a scythe—think pork belly or sandwiches with fried eggs broken across the top.

Are there any brews you've used to help friends discover the beauty of beer?

About the Author: Corin Hirsch is a food writer at Seven Days, the alt-weekly in Burlington, Vermont. Find her work at www.7dvt.com, and follow her on Twitter: @latesupper.

[Photographs: Sean Buchan]

With Halloween next week and Thanksgiving on the horizon, pumpkin beers have taken center stage in just about every store with a decent beer selection. Love them or hate them, they're here to stay—for the season, that is—and they have quite a long history.

While pumpkin beers are typically brewed with an amber or brown ale base, many brewers are now getting creative with their recipes and using pumpkin in a variety of unusual styles. Jonathan Moxey curated a list of 6 unusual pumpkin beers to check out last week.

But which pumpkin beer is the best? Some have gathered quite a bit of hype, so I recently assembled some of the most highly regarded and sought-after pumpkin brews (along with a few that are widely available) for a little blind tasting. Some were brewed by tiny craft breweries, others by much larger ones. Each beer was rated blind, solely on aroma, flavor, balance, and overall experience. Would we like the most coveted, cult-favorite beers? Or would something else stand out from the crowd? Of the 17 pumpkin beers we sampled, here were our favorites.

Schlafly Pumpkin Ale

This top-scoring beer likely came as no surprise to those living in the Midwest—Schlafly makes a darn good pumpkin beer. This pumpkin ale smelled like Thanksgiving at Grandma's house. The beer has heavy spicing without letting that dominating the palate, allowing the pumpkin to shine.

Uinta Oak Jacked Imperial Pumpkin Ale

Uinta's Oak Jacked was a very different beast from the other beers sampled. Clocking in at 10.8% ABV, this beer clearly had some heat, tasting fairly similar to a barleywine (with pumpkin). The brief slumber in oak barrels—combined with added spices and the bit of residual sugar in the brew—reminded us of candied pumpkin and brown sugar. Delicious!

Samuel Adams Fat Jack

This brew really surprised and impressed us. With 28 pounds of pumpkin per barrel, Fat Jack did not lack on pumpkin flavor. But what won the panel over was the use of smoked malts, which evoked roasted pumpkin deliciously.

Southern Tier Pumking

Pumking has grown to a near cult-like following, and our tasters scored it highly. It smells like pumpkin pie with a punch of vanilla and tastes just as good. Fortunately it was much less sweet on the palate than it was on the aroma. The finish: just like fresh whipped cream.

Cigar City Good Gourd

Easily the most heavily spiced beer in the tasting, Florida's Cigar City brews Good Gourd with Ceylon cinnamon, Jamaican allspice, Zanzibar cloves, and nutmeg. But the aroma was filled with fresh pumpkin even with all of the added spice. This creamy-textured brew would make an excellent dessert beer.

Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela

Despite their name, Jolly Pumpkin did not actually brew a pumpkin beer until this one rolled out. La Parcela is a sour pumpkin ale that works incredibly well. A beautiful aroma of spice, funk, and a bit of pumpkin is backed up by a very complex collection of flavors. This is not the beer to drink if you're looking for liquid pumpkin pie, but it's perfect for those who love sour beers.

Tommyknocker Small Patch Pumpkin Harvest Ale

Small Patch Pumpkin Harvest Ale is a brown ale with some added pumpkin, molasses, and spice. The malt profile lends itself to fall flavors with notes of toffee, bread, molasses, and hints of pumpkin. This is a great seasonal beer for those looking for a "spiced-up" brown ale.

Of course, these beers are all really different, and there's no single "correct" way to brew a pumpkin beer. You might prefer one style or another. Have you tried any of our top picks? Which is your favorite pumpkin beer?

About the Author: Sean Buchan covers the Denver craft beer scene for Denver Off the Wagon in addition to doing freelance photography for Colorado breweries. You can also view his beer photography on his blog, Beertographer, here.

All beers tasted: Samuel Adams Fat Jack, Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela, Cigar City Good Gourd (sample provided), Southern Tier Pumking (sample provided), Uinta Oak Jacked, Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin, Elysian The Great Pumpkin (sample provided), Upslope Pumpkin Ale, Tommyknocker Small Patch Pumpkin, Schlafly Pumpkin Ale (sample provided), Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Shipyard Pumpkinhead, Lakefront Pumpkin Lager Beer, Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Buffalo Bill's America's Original Pumpkin Ale, Saranac Pumpkin Ale, Uinta Punk'n