Do you feel a chill in the air? Jack Frost nipping at your nose? It’s true; the weather will dip to 77 degrees today. Peaks and Pints will be celebrating the cool weather all day by pouring a five-beer flight of winter-ish craft beers. Cold snaps in the weather make for fine opportunities to sip bold winter beers, bursting with spices, roasted malts, and complex flavors. Take a break from those lighter brews and sip the bold, rich barleywines, barrel-aged browns, and winter warmers that are typically enjoyed during the colder months. Christmas is 154 days away, y’all. Get excited. Or just go drink the Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Winter In July.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Winter In July
Corsendonk Christmas Ale
8.5% ABV
Corsendonk Christmas Ale has all the sugar and spice. Brewed with Pale, Munich and Caramunich malts, plus Kent Goldings hops, this rich, dark, joyous brew has sweetish, yeasty-spicy and slightly fruity aroma of caramel, coriander, toasted coconut, some raisins and a touch of chocolate with similar tastes followed by a medium long, quite bitter, moderately yeasty-spicy and slightly roasty finish.
Hopworks Barrel-Aged Abominable
10% ABV
Annual special release of last year’s Hopworks Abominable Ale winter ale aged in whiskey barrels for 9 months for creamy caramel and candy forward, and boozy on the back.
Block 15 Figgy Pudding
11% ABV
Often called “plum pudding” — even though it contains no plums whatsoever — figgy pudding was first recorded as “Christmas Pudding” in 1858 and later popularized in the carol, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Block 15 Brewing’s English-style barleywine is called Figgy Pudding even though it contains no figgy pudding whatsoever. Who cares. Brewed with black strap molasses, blend of English pale and specialty malts, and an extended maturation in freshly emptied brandy barrels and gentle spicing with Ceylon cinnamon, and nutmeg, this warming holiday beer is a blessing.
Reuben’s Three Ryes Men
13.7% ABV
Three Ryes Men is Reuben’s Brews‘ US Beer Tasting Championship Grand National Champion, Craft Beer & Brewing Top 20 of 2020, FoBAB Silver-winning, and GABF Bronze-medalist barrel-aged barleywine. The English-style barleywine is brewed with multiple types of rye and aged in whiskey barrels, featuring a full body with malt driven caramel and chocolate notes, and layers of warming complexity. Adam calls it a “liquified ROLO.”
Oakshire Rye Whiskey Very Ill-Tempered Gnome
15.36% ABV
In late 2023, Oakshire Brewing re-released their Rye Whiskey Very Ill-Tempered Gnome, a rye-whiskey barrel-aged imperial expression of one of our favorite beers, Ill-Tempered Gnome dry-hopped winter brown ale with layers upon layers of toasty malts and resinous hop flavors. Ill-Tempered Gnome is brewed with American and British malt and hopped with some of their favorite varieties from the Pacific Northwest. Oakshire blended Very Ill-Tempered Gnome from barrels and finished in rye-whiskey barrels from a very special Vermont distillery. With more malt, more hops and more flavorful goodness, Rye Whiskey Very Ill-Tempered Gnome sports a malt profile of caramel, light fruit, and toasty nuts backed by a warming alcohol presence and a bold citrus hop blast. It’s bold but balanced.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
