Cheers to everyone who participated in this month’s edition of The Session! Here’s the roundup of contributions; I believe I have listed all of them, but if there are any I missed please leave a comment below.

Nick over at Lautering.net relates a time over a decade ago when he was traveling home for Christmas on the German autobahn and got snowed in overnight—in the car! Fortunately he had a beer with him, a Berlin Kindel pilsner.

At Likely Moose, Looke points out that Bedfordshire, England doesn’t get much snow, but relates a story of visiting the Ice Bar in Amsterdam—which sadly only serves one type of Lager: “in Amsterdam, you’ve got two choices and its not Amstel.”

In Boak & Bailey‘s corner of England, Cornwall, they don’t get snow, just the rain—“Rain and gales.”  Pub-drinking weather, though if it does get bad, they will find themselves “huddling by the fire with Fuller’s Vintage Ale, Adnams Tally Ho or Harvey’s Imperial Stout.”

The Beer Nut describes a recent barrel-aged barleywine tasting, one aged in Jack Daniels bourbon barrels, another in brandy, which sounds like a lovely snowy winter evening activity. And decides that if he were stuck in the snowed in cabin in the mountains, would likely pick a session beer to winter with.

My friend and fellow Bend beer blogger, Mark the Bend Beer Librarian, digs right down into this topic with gusto, covering the slew of ideas I put together. And yes, you’ll be drooling too when reading through the cellar considerations!

Over at A Good Beer Blog, Alan is at a bit of a loss; while being very aware of the season, Canadians ignore winter. Alan is cocooned up. “What’s that got to do with beer? I have no idea. I’m still working through the leftover Christmas liqueurs trying to cope. See you in March.” (For what it’s worth, I’ve got the Christmas liqueurs around as well…)

The Bottle Muse tackles the snow head on, living in New England where the snow accumulates and needs to be shoveled. Solution? Beer! “You’re probably doubting me right now, but if you haven’t experienced an 8am beer kept cold in a snowbank, while you shovel three feet of snow, then you’re doing it wrong.” Bonus points for beer-and-shoveling pairings!

Thomas at Yours for Good Fermentables recalls a story from ’93 about finding a barleywine on tap to combat a chill Virginia winter evening. And a bonus: it appears he started his blog in 2002, predating mine—alas, The Brew Site is no longer the oldest U.S. beer blog (that I know of) but pretty close!

Sean over at Beer Search Party seems to be that rare southern Californian that isn’t a fan of the heat; “cold winds get my blood circulating and to me there is no happier moment than sitting in a comfy chair with a blanket and a beer.” Sean would prefer to stay in when the snow hits rather than sled his way to the bottle shop.

Back on the east coast, Jack at Deep Beer looks forward to the Russian Imperial Stouts when the snow piles up, and recently drank Bell’s Expedition Stout during just such a snowstorm. Sounds pretty fine to me! Plus a nice callout to the book Vintage Beer, as Jack notes that Expedition Stout should age beautifully.

In San Diego, it was dropping into the 40s recently—wintertime in a city that’s normally in the 70s!—and Kyle at Embracing Limitations writes about tasting a lambic-style beer with friends that he brewed while living in Bolivia. “Not quite the best pairing for a chilly 50 degree night on the Karl Strauss patio at a homebrew club meeting, but a nice California winter memory to savor for a long time.”

Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer doesn’t get much snow in St. Louis — “If you can walk to a brewery in 20 minutes you are not snowed in” — but Stan relates a ski trip to Durango, Colorado where there was plenty of snow, as well as beer from Ska Brewing. Though the picture with the PBR is pretty classic.

Over at Community Beer Works, Dan ruminates from the couch (he has the flu) on the perfect winter temperature to serve beer at, and shares “the little bit of genius I’ve learned about beer storage during the winter: use your basement.” It comes out perfect at drinking time.

There you have it; counting my own post which can be found here, that gives us 14 contributions for the February Session, which seems to be par for the course these days. If there are any more that roll in, I’ll update this list.

Next month, the March Session will be hosted by Mark at Bend Beer Librarian; keep an eye out for the announcement post!