Ripened raisin prominence and pertinent stewed prune sequel saturate sugary candied malts for heady alcoholic holiday ‘biere de garde’ feast. Richer, creamier than ruby-amber hue suggests, settling into somber cognac appeal.

Sweet-flowered winter ale made in traditional Scottish fashion. Yeasty auburn seasonal layers sharp carbonation above soft mocha creaminess up-front. Maple-sapped barley-roasted caramel malting contrasts holiday spicing while slightest bitterness creeps through prune finish. Sans spice, this would appeal to brown ale fans.

Intriguing rust-clouded beige-headed barleywine-styled winter brew (a.k.a Biere  De Noel) enhanced by peculiar spiced nuttiness and well-hopped dried fruiting. Heavy caramel malting provides firm foundation for smoothed-out whiskey finish.

Originally brewed as a ‘black lager,’ this tends to be dryer, cleaner, and crisper than its antecedent while retaining damp tobacco leaf sweetness and hints of rye, rum, or caffeine. Increasing malt sweetness thickens medium-to-full-bodied finish.

27th anniversary winter ale has a hazelnut-chestnut-walnut essence, seasonal pine luminescence, and pronounced mint-y clove follow-through. Its busy spiciness, rich creaminess, and sugary caramel malting anchor strong medicinal finish.

Nearly bock-like with its dusky prune intimacy, chewy toffee-caramel malting, and soft hop-spiced tingle. Gritty cereal-grained subtlety aids moderate cinnamon-toasted nuttiness, but herbal seasoning lacks.

Pride of the Chesapeake Bay, this spry citrus-scented winter treat cloaks sweet malt essence with dark fruity pungency and crisp hop supplement. But it’s closer to briskly carbonated summer ale than spicier heartily robust holiday seasonal.

Rust auburn wintry ale gains prickly spice-hopped tongue to complement ripe peach sweetness, orange rind bitterness, and grapefruit peel souring. Thick chocolate-cocoa malts linger below descending smoked wood cadence.

Extremely sour raisin-fig frontage encounters vinous mouth-puckering gueuze-like grape esters before burnt coffee acridity pushes forward. Raw cocoa-chocolate malt astringency annuls tepid walnut-hazelnut inadequacy and barren winter spicing. Brewery defunct: 2003.

Peculiar ginger-aided beer with copper hue and holiday ale spicing. Though never overbearingly eccentric, Pete’s definitely done better.

Well calibrated, boldly boozy, full-bodied winter seasonal not dissimilar to complex pale ales, yet not as distinctively detailed as Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown or Oatmeal Stout. Sweet whiskey malts inform creamy vanilla-butterscotch frontage and cinnamon-nutmeg-spiced fruitiness contrasts slinky orange peel bittering. Sugar plum, stewed prune, and rum cake illusions relieve ancillary red cherry, pear, and marmalade snip to medicinal finish.

Apt copper-toned seasonal with cinnamon toasted apple jacking, modest dry-hopped spicing and barley-roasted caramel chocolate malting given mild cherry encore. Ashy spruce embers cloak tart citric whim.