What exactly is a winter beer? While there’s no legal definition of what a winter beer is, you probably have a general idea of what one will taste like when you crack it open. Winter beers cover a broad range of styles, but they are generally higher in alcohol than their summery counterparts, utilize more malts, and (on some occasions) have wintry, seasonal spices included. Under this umbrella, you’ll find double IPAs, barleywines, stouts, winter warmers, brown ales, and various other styles.
Like with all beer styles (especially seasonal), more well-known examples seem to pop up every year. We found eight of these classic gems and decided to rank them based on quality and flavor. Below, you’ll find winter warmers, lagers, IPAs, and even Christmas ales. Keep scrolling to see them all.
8) Samuel Adams Winter Lager
ABV: 5.6%
Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This festive, wintry spiced wheat bock starts with Hallertau Mittelfrueh & Spalt Spalter Noble hops. The addition of lager yeast, 2-row pale, Caramel 60, Carafa, Munich 10, and malted wheat give it a toasty, sweet, slightly spicy flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is fairly light with caramel malts, wintry spices, orange peel, and not much else. The palate follows suit with more like vanilla, caramel, bready malts, orange, and cinnamon. It’s an okay beer if you like light wintry spices, but nothing to get excited about.
Bottom Line:
Samuel Adams recently changed the recipe for this beer and it has more wintry spices and orange peel flavor. Clearly, it’s designed to be more of a festive beer, it just misses the mark.
7) Hop Works Abominable
ABV: 7.3%
Average Price: $11.50 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This 7.3% ABV winter ale is brewed with 2-row, C40, C60, Black Malt, and Black Prinz malts. It gets its snappy, floral flavor from the addition of Chinook, Centennial, Cascade, Simcoe, and Cryo Chinook hops. It’s a well-balanced, citrus and spiced winter ale you’ll look forward to every year.
Tasting Notes:
This beer starts off in an unexpected way for a winter ale. There’s a ton of citrus and pine up front with aromas of vanilla and caramel following closely behind. Drinking it reveals more caramel malts as well as pineapple, citrus peels, and piney, herbal hops. It’s a fun beer, but a little hoppy for some winter beer fans.
Bottom Line:
While the hop presence is nice and it’s a highly drinkable winter beer, we’d just prefer that the malts and hops were a little more balanced.
6) Full Sail Wreck The Halls
ABV: 6.5%
Average Price: $10.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Sometimes you just want to deck the halls by drinking something that seems out of place during the holidays. This award-winning beer is referred to as a double IPA, but it’s more like you mixed a winter warmer and a bold Crystal malt and Centennial hop-based IPA together.
Tasting Notes:
Another beer that has floral, herbal pine right off the bat, Wreck the Halls also has a ton of bready and caramel malt aroma. The palate is surprisingly bitter for a winter ale with a ton of pine needles, grapefruit, and tangerine, as well as bready and caramel malts. It’s very hop-forward but has a nice balance to it.
Bottom Line:
As wintry double IPAs go, this one is fairly well-balanced. This finish is dry and a little sweeter than we’d prefer in a double IPA though.
5) Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome
ABV: 6%
Average Price: $10.99 for a four-pack
The Beer:
Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome is just that. It’s a seasonal, limited edition beer that helps to usher in the start of winter. It’s malt-forward with a nice kick of Fuggle and Goldings hops to tie everything together nicely in one neat, holiday package.
Tasting Notes:
Caramel malts, freshly baked bread, dried fruits, vanilla, and lightly herbal hops aromas are prevalent on the nose. The palate continues this trend with toffee, honey, raisins, floral hops, and gentle holiday spices. Overall, it’s a little watery, but surprisingly flavorful.
Bottom Line:
To really live up to its name, we wish this winter warmer had a little more oomph to it. The ABV is a little low and the palate is a little watery.
4) Deschutes Jubeleale
ABV: 6.7%
Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This aptly named beer is referred to as a “festive winter ale”. Its complex flavor profile of chocolate, caramel, and winter spices comes from the addition of Pale, Crystal, Extra Special, Carapils malts and roasted barley as well as Bravo, Cascade, Delta, Us Tettnang, and East Kent Goldings hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is dried fruits, caramel candy, and chocolate fudge. It doesn’t seem like much, but it really draws you in. Drinking it reveals a nice mix of toffee, milk chocolate, wintry spices, and lightly floral, herbal hops that tie everything together with an earthy, spicy flavor.
Bottom Line:
This is an interesting winter ale, to say the least. It’s not all hops and it’s not all spice. There’s a nice caramel and chocolate component that make it a truly special beer.
3) Anderson Valley Winter Solstice
ABV: 6.9%
Average Price: $10.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This eagerly awaited seasonal beer is brewed with house yeast, Pale 2-row, Crystal, and Munich malts as well as oat flakes, Northern Brewer and Chinook hops. It’s known for its bold, caramel, toffee, and spiced flavor profile that needs to be tasted to be believed.
Tasting Notes:
Cinnamon, nutmeg, toffee, dried fruits, and light, earthy hops are prevalent on the nose. Toasted malts, wet grass, dried fruits, more wintry spices, brown sugar, caramel candy, and lightly bitter hops round out the palate nicely. The finish is a nice mix of sweetness and bitterness.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason this is such a beloved, eagerly awaited holiday beer. It’s well-balanced and flavorful with everything you’d want in a winter brew.
2) Sierra Nevada Celebration
ABV: 6.8%
Average Price: $10.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
There aren’t many winter seasonal beers as eagerly awaited as Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. This winter favorite is brewed with ale yeast, caramelized, and 2-row pale malts. It gets its bright, hoppy flavor from the addition of Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose starts off with light cereal grains, toffee, and bready malts and moves onto aromas of grapefruit, lemon zest, orange peel, and herbal, earthy pine. The palate continues this start with flavors like caramel candy, honey, grapefruit, tangerine, and spicy, floral, earthy pine needles. The finish is a nice mix of malt sweetness and citrus and piney bitterness.
Bottom Line:
This is an extremely complex, complicated beer. This one and the beer that took the top spot could easily be interchanged based on your beer preference. This is the holiday beer for the hop fans.
1) Anchor Christmas Ale
ABV: 7.2%
Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack
The Beer:
There aren’t many winter beers (or any beers for that matter) as beloved and eagerly awaited as Anchor Christmas Ale. Brewed since 1975 (you read that right), Anchor doesn’t release the recipe. But you can bet that year after year it will be loaded with caramel malts, wintry spices, and light hops.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of cocoa powder, sticky toffee pudding, molasses candy, cinnamon, nutmeg, and floral, herbal pine greet you before your first sip. The palate is loaded with bready and toasted malts, caramel, toffee, honey, molasses, fudge, nutmeg, cinnamon, and lightly bitter, earthy hops. The finish is a mix of roasted malts and bitter, floral hops.
Bottom Line:
The folks at Anchor have had a long time to perfect this beer and they definitely have. It’s an amazingly balanced beer with caramel malts, wintry spices, and hops playing together nicely.
