Seasonal beers are just that

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Many poets might muse about the fleeting nature of beauty, and beer lovers can empathize because seasonal ales and stouts will only be on tap for a short time (just a few weeks in some cases). With winter in full chill, breweries have been doing their best to keep their patrons warm with a nice cold beer, and here are some of the ones still available:

Scot Holidale By Buckbean Brewing Company

This Scottish type ale is similar to pale ale and has a 6.8 percent A.B.V. It has a dark red color with a malty and sweet taste that goes well with desserts and holiday foods like turkey. The beer is served in only a few establishments around town like Coel Irish Pub, Jungle Vino and Nu Yalk Pizza, or you can fill up a growler at the brewery.

• Price: A growler and a fill costs $11.50; a fill costs $7.50
• How long: Until February
  
  

Red Nose Holiday Wassail by Great Basin Brewing Co.

For Great Basin’s holiday ale, the brewery took their inspiration from an old English beer that was traditionally used while caroling. Wassail actually means “to your health.”  Each year, Great Basin brews a version of this ale; this year the beer has tastes of fresh ginger, cinnamon, lime peel and honey, which gives it a nice, warm, almost pumpkin taste. The beer has 7.3 percent A.B.V.

• Price: $4 a pint
• How long: mid-January

Wheeler Peak Wheat by Great Basin Brewing Co.

The Wheeler Peak Wheat is a Hefeweizen that lacks the banana and clove notes that characterize this German-style beer. Instead, it has a clean and unfiltered wheat taste with a toaster flavor and not that many hops. The dark straw color beer has 5.2 percent A.B.V.

• Price: $4 a pint
• How long: February

Mollies Dry Irish Stout Great Basin Brewing Co.

This dry Irish Stout is very similar to Guinness, but it’s a little sweeter. This very dark beer has a chocolaty and coffee taste to it and a nitro nozzle will give the beer a nice, silky head. The beer has 4.4 percent A.B.V.

• Price: $4 a pint
• How long: February

Winter Spice Ale by Silver Peak Brewery

The Winter Spice Ale truly lives up to its name. Brewed with spruce tips, vanilla beans, cloves and cinnamon. The rich brown beer has a piney taste along with all the tastes associated with the season along with a 5.8 percent A.B.V. This beer comes the closest to feeling like a walk through a snowy pine forest on Christmas Day.

• Price: $4 a pint
• How long: March    

Silver Peak Weizenbock

This dark amber Weizenbock is a German-style beer. It is rich, with tastes of banana and clove to balance out the strong alcohol flavor. The Weizenbock is a high-gravity beer meaning it has a relatively high 7.8 percent A.B.V.

• Price: $4 a pint
• How long: March

Camomile Pale Ale by Silver Peak Brewery

This classic-tasting English Pale Ale is brewed with dried chamomile flowers and Spanish orange peels. The chamomile gives the light beer a unique herbal, almost tea-like taste that is less hoppy. The unique beer has even scored a few awards for the brewery at beer festivals.

• Price: $4 a pint
• How long: mid-January

Windigo Wheat Wine by BJ's Brewery

Similar to a barley wheat malt beer, this drink has a strong alcohol taste with 12 percent A.B.V. Along with the wheat flavor, the beer offers hints of butterscotch and pineapple, which provide a sweet aftertaste to counterbalance its strong alcohol flavor.

• Price: $4.50 a pint
• How long: Until March

Barrel-Aged Bourbon Stout by BJ's Brewery

The brewery took one of its strongest Imperial Stouts, their Tatonka Stout, which usually provides a malty, sweet, hop bitter roasted and full-bodied flavor and aged it in Bourbon barrels for about a year. The process gives the beer a dominant bourbon taste and an A.B.V. of more than 10 percent.

• Price: $4.50 a pint
• How long: Mid-January

Brew Brothers Barley Wine Ale

This year’s recipe is similar to a 2006 bronze-winning beer the Brew Brothers entered at the World Beer Cup. The drink is a very sweet ale with a cherry and brown sugar taste and a warm peppery finish that goes well with desserts. Barley Wine has the same A.B.V. as wine, and this beer comes in at about 12 percent.

• Price: $3.50 a pint
• How long: February