Eight Hearty Barrel-Aged Beers to Keep You Warm This Winter

These porters, stouts, and barleywines will wow you with their new, inventive flavors. And they’ll impress your drinking mates for their rarity.

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By Spike Carter

November 18, 2015 at 12:45 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

According to the Farmers’ Almanac, this winter’s looking like a déjà vu of last year’s for those who experienced epic snowfall and record lows. Here to help, we have a selection of robust barrel-aged beers with generous alcohol by volume to help warm you on colder nights (hopefully by a roaring fire). These eight choices exemplify the more decadent side of brewing.

Bell’s Brewery’s (Kalamazoo, Mich.) Black Note Stout was formerly un-recommendable, because of its impossibly limited production (and a resulting “white whale” status in the beer-nerd world). Luckily, for the past few years production has scaled up somewhat, and this special bourbon barrel-aged blend of their Expedition Stout and Double Cream Stout is now more accessibly packaged in 12-ounce four-packs. Roasty chocolate and coffee notes are underpinned by a fluffy mouthfeel.