Key Takeaways
-
Winter is quietly the best season for Australian craft beer. As the weather cools, the beers worth chasing shift from crushable and tropical to darker, maltier and more warming, the roasty stouts, rich imperial stouts and resinous IPAs built for a cold night.
-
Our pick of the best craft beer for winter spans the full Mountain Culture core range, from the sessionable Moon Dust stout to the 10% Measure Up imperial stout, so there is a cold-weather beer here whether you want one by the fire or a few over a long lunch.
-
Going dark is not the only move. A crisp dark lager and a piney West Coast IPA prove you can drink craft beer that is rich and full of character in winter without it being heavy or hard work.
Summer gets all the beer advertising, all the beach coolers and all the frosty lager ads, which has always seemed a little unfair to us. Winter is quietly the better beer season, and there is a real case that Australian craft beer is at its best once the temperature drops. The cold gives you a reason to slow down, the food on the table turns richer, and the beers that come into their own are the ones with the most going on: roasty, malty, warming and built to be sipped rather than smashed.
So here is our shortlist of the best craft beer to drink this winter, brewed right here at Mountain Culture Beer and pouring across our venues and bars right now. Five very different cans, from an everyday stout to a 10% showstopper, each one made for a cold night in the mountains. Pull up a chair.
What makes a great winter beer
The best craft beer for winter usually does one of two things. It either leans into dark, roasted malt for those flavours of coffee, chocolate and toast that feel right when it is grey outside, or it turns up the body and the ABV so the beer warms you from the inside. The very best winter beers, and a good deal of great beer generally, often do both at once, which is a big part of why we love brewing for winter here at Mountain Culture, one of the country's independent breweries.
That does not mean winter is only about heavy, pitch-black beers. Roast character can be crisp and easy as much as huge and boozy, and plenty of hop-forward beers earn their place in the cold too, whether a resinous West Coast IPA or a punchy pale ale, especially the drier styles with a proper hit of hops. The real trick is matching the craft beer to the moment. Some nights call for a couple of sessionable cans, others call for one big glass by the heater. The five below, all part of our current range, cover the full spread of winter styles.
5 craft beers you need to try this winter
Here is where it gets practical. Five beers from the Mountain Culture range, one for every kind of winter night, matched to the cold weather they were made for.
Moon Dust, our sessionable stout
Moon Dust is the easiest way into winter drinking, an American stout at 5.6% ABV that tastes far bigger than it drinks. Generous roasted malt does the heavy lifting, pouring flavours of coffee, dark chocolate and toast under a smooth, creamy head, and it was made for misty mountain days if ever a beer was. The clever part is how sessionable it stays.
Where plenty of stouts flatten you after one, our Moon Dust Stout is light enough on its feet that you can happily have a couple while the rain sets in. If you have always assumed dark beer means heavy, this is the can that quietly changes your mind, and an easy favourite to start your winter with.
Note To Self, a dark lager that stays crisp
If Moon Dust is the gateway, Note To Self is the plot twist, a dark lager at 5.1% ABV that looks like a stout and drinks like a lager. Premium Munich and dark roasted malts give it a deep mahogany colour and comforting aromas of toasted pumpernickel, dark cocoa and a hint of molasses, but there is no big hop hit and no heaviness to wade through.
It finishes crisp, clean and dangerously smooth. This is the beer for anyone who wants the cosy, roasty side of winter without committing to a full-bodied stout, and living proof that dark and easy-drinking craft beer are not a contradiction.
Power Move, a West Coast IPA with bite
Not every winter beer needs to be dark. Power Move is a West Coast IPA at 6.9% ABV for the drinkers who like their beer to bite back. A whirlpool of Simcoe and Centennial hops lays down classic grapefruit peel and sticky pine needles, then Citra and a dry hop of Mosaic and Strata pile on passionfruit, dank orange and a resinous, sticky finish.
Where a juicy hazy is soft and round, this one is dry, firm and properly bitter, the kind of beer that cuts through a rich winter meal and keeps your palate wide awake between bites. A pine-forward IPA on a cold night is a genuinely underrated pleasure, and one of our favourites on tap in the current range.
Cult IPA, big, juicy and full-bodied
When you want comfort in hop form, Cult IPA delivers. Our everyday hazy IPA at 6.2% ABV is all pillowy body and a wall of new world hops, stacking up soft tropical fruit over a full, satisfying frame.
That fuller body is exactly what makes it a winter beer as much as a summer one, because there is enough weight and warmth here to stand up to the cold and to a big, bold plate of food. Think of it as the crowd-pleaser of the range, the one to reach for when you want plenty of flavour without heading all the way down the dark and roasty road. If a hazy pale ale is your summer default, this is its bigger winter cousin.
Measure Up, the 10% Mont Blanc imperial stout
Save this one for the coldest night you can find. Measure Up is a Mont Blanc imperial stout at a serious 10% ABV, and it is about as close as a beer gets to dessert by the fire. Espresso and dark chocolate form the base, then nutmeg, roasted coffee beans and fresh orange peel layer in notes of candied orange and baking spice for something warm, comforting and, in our own words, dangerously indulgent.
This is not a beer to rush. Pour it into a small glass, let it warm in your hand, and sip slowly while it unfolds. One of these is a whole evening, and proof of how far a bit of craft brewing ambition can take a single beer.
Where winter lands at Mountain Culture
Winter is when a brewery gets to show its full range, and it is honestly our favourite season to brew craft beer for. As one of Australia's independent breweries, the core range you already know keeps pouring, but the cold is when we brew some of our best beers and lean hardest into the big, dark and experimental stuff: imperial stouts, dark lagers, barrel-aged one-offs and the occasional beer we make purely because the weather has finally caught up to it.
The five here are a snapshot of what Mountain Culture Beer looks like right now, and a fair sample of the best craft beer Australia turns out in the colder months. Some, like Moon Dust and Cult IPA, are around all year.
Others, like Measure Up and Power Move, are limited releases that will be gone once they are gone, which is rather the point. We have been chasing really good beer since 2019, and when others zig, we zag, so the best craft beer to drink this winter is usually the one you grab before it disappears. Come and find your cold-weather favourite on tap at the bar before the sun comes back out.
Best Craft Beer FAQs
What temperature should I serve dark beers and stouts in winter?
Warmer than you might think. Serving a stout or imperial stout close to fridge-cold locks up all the coffee, chocolate and spice you actually want from it. As a rough guide, let stouts and dark, boozy styles warm to around 8 to 12 degrees so the aroma opens up, keep a dark lager a touch cooler at 5 to 7 for its crisp side, and sit a West Coast IPA somewhere in the middle. The simple move on a cold day is to pour, wait five minutes, and let your craft beer come up to you rather than drinking it straight from the fridge.
Can you warm up or mull craft beer the way you would mulled wine?
You can gently warm a rich, dark beer, but leave the saucepan and the mulling spices in the cupboard. A big imperial stout or a barrel-aged beer really does taste better a few degrees above fridge temperature, so cupping the glass in your hands is all the warming most winter beers need.
Actually heating beer on the stove is a different story, because the heat drives off the carbonation and aroma and can leave it flat and harsh. If you want the mulled-wine ritual, reach for a beer already built with spice, like our nutmeg and orange peel imperial stout, and you get there without cooking anything.
Why do stouts and dark beers seem to taste better in winter?
Part of it is the flavours themselves. Roasted malt gives coffee, chocolate, toast and dark fruit, the same warm, comforting notes we crave in cold-weather food, so a stout simply feels in season next to a Sunday roast in July.
Part of it is temperature and setting, since a rich beer sipped slowly in the warm suits a grey day far better than a long, thirsty session in the sun. And part of it is contrast, because a dark, warming beer hits differently when it is genuinely cold outside. That is a big reason breweries save their biggest, roastiest styles for the middle of the year.
How should I store a big imperial stout, and do they get better with age?
Big, dark and high-alcohol beers are the one style that genuinely rewards patience. Stored upright, cold and out of the light, a 10% imperial stout will happily keep for a year or more, and many soften and deepen as they age, trading a little of their boozy heat for smoother chocolate and dark-fruit character.
Hop-forward styles are the exact opposite and want drinking fresh, so if you buy a few winter beers to put away, cellar the imperial stouts and drink the IPAs first. The move is to buy two of the big ones: one for now, one for next winter.
I do not usually like dark or bitter beer. Which of these should I start with?
Start with Note To Self. A dark lager gives you the cosy, roasty character that makes winter craft beer appealing, the cocoa and toasted-malt aromas, without the fuller body of a stout or the bitterness of an IPA, so it is the gentlest way into the style.
From there, Moon Dust is a soft next step, since it is far more sessionable and less intense than its jet-black colour suggests. Leave Power Move and the 10% Measure Up until you have found your feet, and you may be surprised how quickly the dark and hoppy end of the range starts to make sense.