The Best Beers for the Season Part 1

Winter is meant for beer.

by Joseph Elia

Welcome to the best beer drinking season of the year. Oh sure I enjoy  cracking a few at the beach or poolside. There’s nothing like some suds, sand, and sun on a warm summer day. I also like sitting on the hood of an F150 on a starry summer night kicking back with some domestic lagers and relaxing with good friends.

While those are certainly two drinking highlights of my warmer months, they don't really compare to cold weather sessioning. First off winter beers are bigger, more flavorful, and warming. For the first half of the season we are looser, more festive, and more socially engaged than other seasons. All great mindsets for the fraternity that is beer. During the last half of the season we are a little more despondent, isolated, and tired of the drudgery of winter. All great mindsets for the comfort of beer. Finally, winter beers pair well with the celebratory meals of our gatherings and with the comfort foods of our solitude.

An Ode to Celebration

by Joseph Elia

One of my favorite things about beer is how it becomes part of our lives. It is a favorite lifelong friend at the end of our days, on our weekends, at our gatherings, in our moments of solitude or in our moments of pride and accomplishment. Somehow beer seems to imbue these times with sparkle and a sense of festivity, connection, and mirth.

Now I have drank a lot of beer some are part of my own personal lore.  There are the cans of Genny Cream I stole from a family picnic, the cases of Coors I purchased in high school because it was the big deal beer of the time, the countless cases of Meister Brau I drank in college, the pitchers of Red Dog I drank on the first date with my wife, and the pitcher of Bass I bought with literally my last $12 (and I mean I had $.39 left to my name). But the beer I hold with fondness is Celebration, Sierra Nevada’s winter offering and in my estimation the finest beer for this time of year.