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A Lesson In Seasonals

Posted on Dec 7, 2009 by Kathleen   |  

There is a lot I didn’t know about seasonal beer before today. It’s a lot like any other beverage or food – different times of the year call for different styles. You probably won’t drink eggnog in July or lemonade in December, just as you wouldn’t eat pumpkin pie in April (okay, you might, but it’s still a fall food!)

Anyway, there’s an art to pairing beers with seasons. I found a useful website, Seasonal Beer and Food, that does a great job of outlining this art.

I’ll start with the winter beers. In the cold season, usually around Christmas, these ales are brewed bigger in body and mouthfeel with a warmth that makes you want to curl up by the fire. They often feature unique spices and herbs that complement the tastes of the season – cinnamon, nutmeg, gingerbread, apple cider, etc. – always with a fullness that keeps you toasty and cheerful.

There are a variety of spring beers each year starting around March – these include Maibocks (May bocks), red ales, and Irish stouts. Maibock is a German-style lager that is said to have been consumed by monks during fast. It’s a malty medium-body beer. Red Ale has a light caramel sweetness to it with an aggressive hop flavor to it. Irish Stout is a roasty dark ale to drink on a rainy day in April.

In the summer, wheat beer and saison are at their best. Wheat beers all have distinctive tastes because of the different percentages of wheat malt used in each. Saison, which means “season” in English, is a farmhouse ale from the French speaking region of Belgium. Saison ales are brewed in the winter and served in the summer with a liberal dose of hops.

Fall brings with it one of the most popular seasonal beer styles – Oktoberfest, or Marzen (March). Oktoberfests are amber lagers brewed in March, and then aged until the end of summer. They were traditionally aged in caves and tapped around August/September. Pumpkin beers are a fall season that come in all styles and can be ales or lagers – they just have to have pumpkin in the mix! Harvest ales, like winter lagers, often feature spices and tastes of the season and are usually stronger in alcohol content to help you adjust as the season gets colder.

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