Pennsylvanians have been subject to a harsh winter so far this year. Luckily, there are plenty of delicious brews to help you warm up as you light the fireplace and track down every blanket in your home. These beers are likely to accompany that warming feeling by delivering roasty flavors or a high alcohol percentage for slow sipping.
1. Nitro Stout
Rich and smooth, stouts served on nitro are perfect choices for cold nights. Serving stouts on nitro tends to enhance mouthfeel and leaves a fluffy head on top. These beers are also usually served a bit warmer, around 45 degrees, which can bring out more flavor. Vault Brewing Company’s Breakfast Stout packs an 8% ABV oatmeal stout with Pretty Bird Coffee, Vermont maple syrup and lactose into a 16-ounce nitro can for a complex, memorable sip.
2. Black and Tan
The tradition of layering stout atop a pale ale is one made for cold winters. This heavenly combination contains the perfect body and balance of roasty and pale malts when done properly. When making at home, your choice of brews can have drastic effects on the outcome. Low-alcohol blends of simple pale ales and modest stouts work best, but experimenting with pale ales of varying hoppiness and stouts of varying roastiness can yield wonderful results. Alternatively, look for Yuengling’s Black & Tan and let the pros do it for you.
3. Double IPA
When a rich stout sounds too heavy, consider a high-octane hoppy beer as a good substitute. Double IPAs boast large hop additions and an alcohol content around 8%. Takes on the style can range greatly based on malt and hop selection in addition to the brewing methods used. For example, hop additions throughout the boil will create a more bitter flavor, and large dry hop additions during or post-fermentation will create more hop flavor and aromatics. Look for Dancing Gnome Brewing Company’s Better One Or Two for what the brewery calls “an absurd amount of hop flavor without being too bold and bitter.”
4. Barleywine
High in ABV and loaded with specialty malts, barleywines are made for warming up. Malt complexity is the backbone of the beer, while large hop additions add bittering. Barrel aging often helps mellow out these big beers, but fresh bottles can also be aged in a cellar for years to reduce the heat from the high alcohol content, which can be 12% or greater. Look for Weyerbacher Brewing Company’s balanced, hearty Blithering Idiot as a Pennsylvania standby.
5. Barrel-Aged Stout
The coup de grâce for bitterly cold nights this winter, barrel-aged stouts will warm you up and put you to bed. Starting with the rich chocolaty base of an imperial stout and adding the complex notes housed in bourbon barrels creates a treasure for nights when the temperature drops. You may taste some liquor or alcohol from the beer’s high-alcohol content or barrel aging, but aging the beer in the bottle can usually offset those traits, if desired. Victory Brewing Company’s coffee bourbon stout, Java Cask, gets extra roasty notes from One Village Coffee and clocks in at 14.3% ABV.
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The Brewers of Pennsylvania is a nonprofit trade association that brings together leaders of Pennsylvania-based breweries in order to promote and protect the brewing industry in the state. Established in 2011, the Brewers of Pennsylvania serves the consuming public of Pennsylvania by encouraging brand diversity in the market. We believe in the nobility of brewing and hold dear the great traditions and history of Pennsylvania brewing.
Featured photo: Weyerbacher Brewing Company; other photos, top to bottom: Vault Brewing Company; Dancing Gnome Brewing Company; Weyerbacher Brewing Company