LCBO Food & Drink Holiday 2017

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SEASONAL 12 DAYS, 12 WAYS

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Après-Ska ng There’s no better way to take the chill off an evening of ice skating than with a warm mug of sweet, creamy beer. Sound weird? Trust us, it is—in the very best way. Butter- beer was made famous by J.K. Rowl- ing’s Harry Potter series, but it’s a real beer style—a Tudor recipe that uses both beer and butter, blending them with holiday spices, whipped egg yolks and sugar for a frothy mug of butterscotch goodness. We used Great Lakes Brewery’s Winter Ale ( LCBO 488163, 750 mL, $5.95), which nixes the need for adding any spices since it’s made with a blend of cinnamon, ginger and orange peel.

HOLIDAY SPICE Gingerbread cookie fans will fall in love with spiced winter ales. Flavoured with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and caramel, Big Rock’s Winter Spice Ale ( LCBO 519603, 473 mL, $2.90) drinks like a home-baked holiday treat minus the sugar. Or get into the spirit with Innis & Gunn’s Frank & Sense ( LCBO 519322, 500 mL, $7.95), a golden ale spiced with frankincense and myrrh, matured over gold flakes.

6 BUTTER BEER recipe on page 254

Cellar-Worthy Beers Most beers are best drunk fresh, but the barley wines, Belgian quadrupels and imperial stouts that appear in winter can mellow with time. For best results choose malty beers above 8 percent ABV (alcohol by volume) and look for “Vintage” on the bottle. Fuller’s Vintage Ale ( LCBO 676213, 500 mL, $7.95) ages like a fine sherry, usually peaking around the three-year mark. Dark and malty Belgian quadrupel Straffe Hendrik ( LCBO 536466, 750 mL, $8.35) takes on port-like notes and is best between one and three years old. And Niagara’s one-year-old brewery, The Exchange, designed its wine-barrel-aged, wild-fermented Golden Ale ( LCBO 493049, 750 mL, $13.50) for maturing—it will develop a rustic farmhouse funk and more pineapple and coconut notes over time—so buy a few bottles and see how it changes over a few years.

FOOD & DRI NK HOLIDAY