Everybody loves summer. In New Zealand, summer is the time for beaches, barbecues, backyard cricket and any number of the outdoor hobbies that we are lucky enough to enjoy. As a beer lover, it’s also the time for your light-style brews; lagers, pale ales, sours and sessions.

Not to be exclusionary, but enjoying a double milk stout on a hot summer’s day is atypical. But that’s why we have winter! While the cooler climate is somewhat less encouraging of many outdoor activities, winter is the perfect time for nestling in and indulging your inner mole with a comforting deep strong ale.

Typically more balanced for a fuller body, winter beers are more about the use of toasted malt than about the easy flavour-bomb of hops, the latter there more for balance than for showcasing - an effort in restraint from the brewer. Style examples of classic winter beers would be porters, stouts, dunkels, Belgian ales and red ales, the most recognisable being the stout.

Named as shorthand for ‘a very stout porter’ and made using long toasted malts, the colour this leaves on the barley grains gives the beer its deep red-black hue and imparts notes of chocolate, warm spice, coffee and tobacco. These beers will often age well due to the higher alcohol content and should be drunk just a few degrees warmer than fridge-cold. Simply leave the bottle or can out for 20 minutes before consuming.