With the winter chill comes barley wine season

IF BEER HAS A SEASON, we're in it. Bold flavors taste best in crisp air—a Jackson Pollock on a stark white wall—but beer's autumnal ties are more than aesthetic. Late fall marks the historic start of the brewing cycle, and the release of the king of beers: barley wine.

Before refrigeration, brewers relied on winter's chill to keep fermentation slow and consistent. They started with barley wine, a potent harvest feast in a glass. First made in 18th-century England with extra helpings of floral Kent hops and coal-kilned pale malt to help them last through spring and beyond, barley wines were born kicking, branded with names like Crackskull and Dragon's Milk.Then, as now, they're pricey. In fact, when Napoleonic-era bickering with France threatened England's claret imports, Lords kept their country manors stocked with strong beer, "to answer the like purpose of wine," attests one old brewing handbook. They sipped from elfin glasses, etched with hop vines, and warmed their beer fireside. (Not too close: One over-eager boozer noted hisdrink "flared up like whisky.")

Extra-pale versions became today's IPAs. Arctic explorers packed darker "winter warmers" that were "as nourishing as beefsteak," in the words of early-20th-century beer writer William Henry Beable, and, crucially, hard to freeze. Today, Boulder, Colo.-based Avery has called its Hog Heaven an "imperial red." Whatever the nomenclature, barley wines are strong enough to last years without turning sour; most benefit from a mellowing rest. J.W. Lees barley wines from the 1980s are, according to some, just starting to peak.
In the U.S., barley wine has grown stronger, trading dainty English hops for high-octane American strains. Some, like Firestone-Walker's Helldorado, are light and subtle. But most pack wallops, bracing as bourbon when young, sage as good Sherry when aged.

At Denver's Great Divide, head brewer Taylor Rees likes his bitter Old Ruffian fresh off the line, but he prefers his buttery Hibernation with a year on it, "when those tobacco and chocolate flavors turn fruity and caramel." So stock up for this Thanksgiving and save a few bottles for next year, too.