Hoppy Holidays

Over Halloween weekend, while costumed kids were out collecting candy, some of us older wraiths were rounding up the new winter beer releases.

Trick-or-treat time traditionally signals the end of Oktoberfest suds season and the beginning of bigger, heartier brews for the holidays.

Like chocolate-coated candy bars, winter beers tend to look alike on the outside. Most are a rich, reddish-brown, whether you call it “deep mahogany,” like Pyramid’s Snow Cap, “garnet-colored,” like Full Sail’s Wassail, or “chestnut-colored with a ruby tint,” like Redhook’s Winterhook.

But once you take a few sips, some differences start to emerge.

Winterhook is among the lightweights of the bunch — not that it’s a bad beer, by any means, just a little lower in alcohol.

Many winter beers come in around a powerful 7 percent alcohol by volume, compared to about 5 percent for the typical microbrew. Winterhook stakes out a comfortable middle ground at 6 percent.

“We want you to be able to have two,” says Pamela Hinckley, Redhook’s vice president of sales and marketing.

Winterhook is also among the more food-friendly of the winter beers, with malty, fruity flavors followed by a fairly dry, clean finish - a compatible partner for turkey and pumpkin pie, too.

Also in the 6 percent range is Thomas Kemper’s Happy Cow Winterbrau. It’s one of the few holiday lagers, fermented and conditioned at colder temperatures than an ale for a smoother, rounder taste. Winterbrau starts rich and chocolaty before finishing dry and roasty.

Among the big boys, both Wassail and Snow Cap are full-bodied beers with intense aftertastes. Wassail has deeper, darker flavors and a tangy, hoppy, mouth-filling finish. Snow Cap, made with earthy English Fuggles hops, is fruitier at first with a long, distinctively dry finish.

Deschutes’ Jubelale, a perennial favorite, is nicely balanced from the beginning between spicy hop and caramel-like malt flavors. Like last year, it’s been dry-hopped for extra aroma, meaning whole hops are added to the beer as it matures.

Plenty of spicy, herbal hops also highlight Portland Brewing’s new BobbyDazzler, a reddish, more robust replacement for the former Icicle Creek.

While the malt sweetness remains, brewmaster Brett Porter bumped up the bitterness and the dry-hopping, along with the alcohol.

“That’s what people in the Northwest expect from these beers,” Porter says. “They don’t want something well-balanced. They want something rougher.”

BobbyDazzler, by the way, is a British word meaning “a remarkable or excellent person or thing.” (Modesty will get you nowhere, Bobby.)

The hops have been toned down this year in Widmer’s copper-colored Winternacht, a traditional German alt beer (sort of a cross between ale and lager).

As well as reducing the hop content and beefing up the body, Widmer switched from the bolder Columbus for a finishing hop to a mellower Oregon variety called Santiam (similar to Tettnang, for those of you keeping score at home). The result is a maltier, creamier beer that still retains a noticeable hop character.

“We think the beer drinks a lot more complex, a lot more full-bodied and smoother, with less of the harshness associated with it last year,” says Widmer President Kurt Widmer.

But as always, hopheads can find a fix in Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale. Although it again seems a little lighter-bodied, like last year, Celebration is still full of promiscuously piney, resiny, citrusy flavors - the perfect recipe for a hoppy holiday season.

Home for the holidays

Northern Lights’ well-crafted Winter Ale is the first locally brewed winter beer to reach the market. While it’s mainly available on tap, the Airway Heights brewery plans to distribute a limited supply of 22-ounce bottles to such specialty stores as Jim’s Home Brew and Huckleberry’s.

Look for area brewpubs to start serving their winter offerings soon, beginning with Pend Oreille’s Winter Ale at the Sandpoint pub on Monday.

And a potent Uncle Cy’s Barleywine is scheduled for release this week at Casey’s in Post Falls, with the Ram and C.I. Shenanigan’s ready to roll out their own barleywine “as soon as the first snow falls.” Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Keg and Cork, to us

Some 40 regional beers will be poured along with more than 100 wines at the annual Cork and Keg Festival, Nov. 19, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Cavanaughs Inn at the Park.

Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Proceeds benefit the Spokane Restaurant & Hospitality Association. Tickets are available at area Rosauers supermarkets, Huckleberry’s, the Vino! wine shop and selected restaurants, or by calling 467-7744 or e-mailing dtikker@earthlink.net.

One that got away

We almost hate to tell you how much we enjoyed Pike Brewing’s 10th-anniversary XXXXX Stout - a rich, roasty black beer full of coffee and chocolate flavors - because the limited supply of bottles has already sold out in Spokane. You should still be able to find it at Daanen’s Deli in Hayden Lake, though, and it may show up on tap at a tavern or two.

And if you still miss out, well, that 20th-anniversary stout will be here before we know it.