December and the holiday season are upon us again! This is my favorite time of year, especially here on the Brew Site: I have far too much fun picking beers for my daily Advent Beer Calendar and blogging about them. This is the third year now I’ve been running this feature and hopefully it’s as much fun for everybody else as it is for me.

This year’s first beer for the Calendar comes from Boston, Massachusetts, and one of America’s older craft breweries: Harpoon Brewery‘s Winter Warmer. Available from November to January, it’s a moderately dark, spiced ale that is 5.5% alcohol by volume. Brewed since 1988, the spices used are cinnamon and nutmeg and pack that holiday kick.

I selected Harpoon for the 1st also because today is their 4th Annual Harpoon Helps Spread Holiday Cheer event:

On Saturday, December 1st, 2007, we will be sending Harpoon Helpers to various locations throughout Boston (shelters, soup kitchens, play spaces, etc.) and this year, we will also be helping spread holiday cheer in cities all over New England, including Portland, ME, Worcester, MA, Providence, RI, Hartford, CT, Manchester, NH, and Windsor, VT/Lebanon, NH.

The "Harpoon Helpers" go out and decorate those various locations for the holidays; in addition, they hold a gift drive for the people at the shelters they’re decorating. If that’s not a great way to kick off this holiday season, I don’t know what is.

BeerAdvocate score: 78/100, 69% approval. RateBeer score: 3.23/5, 64th percentile.