If you’ve ever had gorgonzola, you know it is intense.  It dominates this dish, so when picking a beer, you’re primarily picking something to complement the gorgonzola.

Been eating on the pizza for a couple days, so I’ve sampled three different beers with it.   Dick’s Double Diamond Winter Ale, Sierra Nevada ESB, and Tommyknocker Butthead Doppelbock.  They were all pretty much shots in the dark.  I really wasn’t sure what would go well with something as crazy as gorgonzola.

Happily, they all worked.  I’d say the Butthead was best, the ESB placed second, and the Double Diamond clocked in at number three.

Double Diamond is a Winter Warmer along the lines of an old ale.  Not especially hoppy, but rich and malty with some fruity esters and a nice alcohol warmth.  It was just ok with this.

Sierra Nevada is an Americanized ESB — a bit more citrus than English versions.  I was very pleased that the hops didn’t clash with this.  Something even hoppier might even work.

I was really unsure about going doppelbock, but Butthead was excellent with it.  It has a more roasted character than most of the really classic examples of the style.  And it’s just a bit thinner on the robust malt character that a Salvator has.  But still a well done doppelbock and it was a great compliment to the gorgonzola.

North Coast Old Stock + dark chocolate. More of that 72% stuff from Whole Foods.  I wasn’t at all sure of this one before trying it, since my most successful pairings with chocolate have involved stouts.   But this was excellent.  Old Stock is a very rich and malty beer with some prominent alcohol notes.  The dark chocolate really pulls out some intense caramel flavors from the beer.  Which, as you might imagine, goes quite well with the bitter chocolate of the 72% grade.

Heineken + Chang’s Spicy Chicken and Crispy Honey Shrimp. The wife wanted P.F. Chang’s the other day on date night.  Inspired by Doug’s Heineken experience with Korean food, I went that direction (as the beer list is a bit depressing).  Not exciting.  P.F. Chang’s around here carried Sweetwater 42o way back in the day, and that would have been a lot more interesting.  But the SOBs dropped it a couple years ago or so.  I don’t hate Heineken, but the flavors are just soooo subtle.  It was washed out by the rather potent Chinese food.  At least it wasn’t skunked.

Cascade Lakes Santa’s Little Helper + Andouille with Red Beans and Rice. Leftovers.  But unlike the pasta from a week ago, red beans and rice doesn’t suffer from sitting in the fridge for a couple days.  Still great.  Though it presents itself as a winter warmer, Santa’s Little Helper is essentially a hoppy American amber.  Quite a nice beer, and another good compliment to the andouille sausage with red beans and rice.  Maybe not quite as good as the hoppier red rye homebrew, as the andouille is pretty intense.  The beer has to fight for some attention on the palate.  But it pulls through and works well.

And finally, Avery Old Jubilation + Hot Wings, tonight.  More leftovers, but these were superior to the first round.  When I cooked these last week, I fried the wings up, poured the sauce over them, and dug in.  Then I put the leftovers in a ziplock bag and poured the remaining sauce in with them.  So they’ve been marinating for a few days, and they were a notch better tonight.  Spicier and more painful.

In spite of my recent comment that I was devoted to pursuing future wing consumption paired with IPAs, I must hang my head in shame and admit I have no IPAs currently in stock.  I probably have at least 20 different styles of beer around right now, but no IPAs.  Shameful.  Part of me wanted to try the homebrew red rye here, as it has IPA levels of hoppiness.  But I instead opted for experimentation.  I went very malty: Avery Old Jubilation.

And the results were surprisingly good.  The caramel sweetness of this old ale-style winter warmer actually provided a good balance to the vinegar spiciness of the wings.  Good contrast, and no off flavors as I’ve experienced with some failed malty pairings.

Ultimately, though, I’m still going to have to vote for the IPA as the preferred pairing for wings.  The citrusy hops of a good American IPA are perfectly refreshing up against the heat of buffalo wings.  Although interesting and complimentary, the winter warmer left me wanting something that felt a little more quenching.  I’m sure a macro lager would acheive that (and certainly has for millions of wings fans), but of course you wouldn’t be tasting anything in that sort of beer when pitted against the intensity of high heat wings; it would be functionally equivalent to water on your palate.  Which defeats the purpose of intentional pairings…

The Gouden Carolus Noel is one of the best holiday seasonal beers around.  It’s a world class Belgian strong dark ale at 10% ABV, already a nice Christmas beer to begin with, made more festive with some masterful spicing.  I can’t even tell you what the spices are, they are so subtle and complex with no one spice smacking you in the face.  But they perfectly round out the spiciness produced by the Belgian ale yeast.  I would guess they fall in the usual winter warmer field of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, etc.

Hardly surprising that these flavors meld perfectly with pecans, a nut that is commonly spiced with those same spices for a holiday treat.  The beer is a bit on the sweet side (not cloying!) so chewing on a pecan with some GC Noel evokes taste budular images of a fine holiday desert.

Highly recommended.

In addition to keeping out 100% of all Trappiste Ales, Barleywines, Imperial Stouts, Double IPAs, and other naturally high gravity craft brews, it also puts a serious drag on our access to seasonals. One of my favorites traits of the world of craft beer is seasonal brews that are typically only available for two or three months of the year, and which are specifically suited to the weather. Spring tends to see a lot of Irish Reds for St. Patrick’s Day, summer sees a lot of very light bodied beers like wheat beers, golden ales, and Kolsches. But the best seasons for beer are fall and winter.

Falls brings us pumpkin beer and Oktoberfests, while winter is the crown jewel of beer seasons, bringing a huge variety of winter warmers. There are no official requirements to qualify a beer as a winter warmer. Rather it is a label commonly applied by brewers to their winter seasonal, which may be one of many possible styles. Very common characteristics are a focus on malt over hops, use of spices, and an above average alcohol content (usually more than 6% ABV).

That last bit is what kills us here in Alabama. Famous winter seasonals include Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale (unusual in that it’s a hoppy IPA instead of a malty giant), Avery Old Jubilation, Great Divide Hibernation Ale, and here in the Southeast, Sweetwater Festive Ale. But all of these world class beers are illegal in this state because of the 6% law. Thus turning the most exciting beer season of the year into something much more tame.

Thankfully, a few great winter seasonals do make it into our cursed state. My favorite by far is Anchor Brewing’s “Our Special Ale.” The recipe changes from year to year, but it’s always dark, richly malty, and perfectly spiced. It’s easy to over-spice a beer, and many brewers do just that. With spices, less is more. You want to get subtle sense of spiciness, but no individual spice flavors should jump out at you. The worst spiced beers taste like cinnamon tea or clove explosions. Another brewer that does it right is the Boston Beer Company. Their Sam Adams Winter Lager and Old Fezziwig are always welcome additions to my fridge this time of year. Another above average offering is Spanish Peaks Winter Cheer, which is thick with caramel maltiness though it features no spices. And Brooklyn has a nice Scottish style winter ale.

Unfortunately, a few other winter seasonals that reach this state are not worth the money. Harpoon’s Winter Warmer has that blunt and crude over-spicing I cautioned against earlier. Leinenkugel’s Fireside Nut Brown is cloying and tastes artificial in my opinion. And Blue Moon Full Moon (from Molson Coors) claims to be a Belgian style ale, but it lacks any semblance of the flavor characteristics that are most distinctive of Belgian yeasts. I would have a higher opinion of it if it didn’t claim to be something it is not. It’s a decent amber ale in its own right; a Belgian style winter seasonal it is not.

Hopefully you enjoyed the influx of Oktoberfest style beers this year, many of which hit Alabama. Oddly, we get more Oktoberfests than any other style of seasonal. Left Hand, Flying Dog, Sam Adams, Saranac, Paulaner, Spaten, Leinenkugel, Harpoon, Beck’s, and maybe a couple others all got in on the Ofest action in AL this year. Left Hand was the best of the bunch.

Word on the street is that Anchor’s Our Special Ale hits stores in Birmingham this week. Go forth and imbibe.