Today’s beer pick comes from New York’s venerable Brooklyn Brewery: Brooklyn Winter Ale. I’ve been looking forward to including Brooklyn Brewery in the Advent Calendar since 2006, when I featured their Monster Ale barleywine; they are one of what I consider to be the “Old Guard” of American microbreweries and including their Winter Ale is especially fitting since Brewmaster Garrett Oliver’s The Oxford Companion to Beer also came out this year.

Brooklyn Winter Ale is a Scottish-style ale brewed to 6% alcohol by volume, and is malty, rich and creamy with a delicious selection of malts including Scottish Floor-malted Maris Otter, crystal malts, Aromatic malt, roasted malts, and oats.

When the days grow short and the beach recedes into our dreams, we need a very nice beer to get us through the long winter. Based on the satisfying malty ales of blustery Scotland, Brooklyn Winter Ale will have you looking on the bright side of things. Rich Scottish malts bring deep bready flavors to a beer with a full copper color, a round, smooth palate, and brisk hopping that pulls the sweet malts into balance. See – things are looking up already!

What better beer to enjoy on this first full day of winter?

Untappd. Facebook. BeerAdvocate: 83/100. RateBeer: 3.15/5, 64th percentile.