Fruit Feast

New Glarus Brewing Company's brewmaster Dan Carey once schooled me in the history of brewing and how it relates to styles of beer. The common thread for storied millennia has been that people brewed with what they had on hand: English barley, German wheat and African sorghum.

Belgians added ample amounts of local fruits to sweeten their ales. Employing cherries, raspberries and sometimes peaches in their lambic offerings, they harmonized these natural sugars with the sour, tart, ambient yeasts.

Many beers taste as if they are fermented from fruit--like a weissbier or a Belgian double--but their flavors are really a product of malt, hops, water and yeast. True fruit beers are exceptional and a reminder of seasons past, especially in the dead of winter.

Fruit beers have been popular recently; pumpkin beers were all the rage in 2007. Raspberries seemed to be in in 2008. Only time will tell what the legacy of 2009 will be.

Macro-breweries have caught on to the fruit trend; Miller Chill has a lime twist. Leinenkugel's makes their seasonal Summer Shandy with lemons and Apple Spice with real apples. A berry blend buoys their Berry Weiss.

The pepper is technically a fruit. Chili beers, which are usually lagers, are a light and spicy change of pace.

Serve It

Present a cold fruit beer in a goblet to capture its rounded flavors. Warm it in your hand to evoke extra esters. The bright colors will shine through the thin, clear glass.

Eat With It

Match a mascarpone dessert with a fruit beer. Chocolate Napoleons and mascarpone cream with raspberry sauce go with a Framboise (lambic raspberry ale). With a chili beer, try flame-grilled venison or roast goose; vegetarians, pick green beans in garlic black-bean sauce and pan-seared sesame noodles.

Entertain With It

Combat cabin fever with comfort food and comfortable surroundings. Throw down pillows and huddle around the hearth. Feast on roast beef and garlic mashed potatoes, sesame-toasted tofu or even curried veggies with saffron-basmati rice. Fete with a fantastic variety of flavors. Fruit beers can be cool winter warmers. In the summer, they'll help you chill.

Get It

Lunar Brewing makes a Raspberry Cream Ale, a little vanilla, a little tart. Cave Creek Chili Beer is bottled with a pepper inside. Furthermore Brewing in Wisconsin makes Fallen Apple, cream ale with fresh-pressed apple cider from the fruit of nearby Gays Mills. American varieties can be seasonal but imports are always available at the best liquor locales.