After the perfect beer for right now? Take your pick.

We may not love the winter chill all that much, but the cold season does have its benefits. Sitting in a cosy pub, fire roaring in front of us and a roasty stout in hand – it almost makes up for the short days and frosty mornings.

But while winters are always filled with pints of that black beer that begins with G, there’s more to the season’s best beers than stout. They don’t all have to be dark, either. We reckon it’s time to throw the old routine out (or at least shake things up a bit) and add some new winter-perfect beers to the rotation. So, pop your scarf on and let’s take a look at the best chilly-season beers and the dishes to pair them with, too.

1. Shepherd Neame India Pale Ale

If you think IPAs are hazy juice bombs or piney West Coast styles, you’re missing out. The very first IPAs were souped-up English ales, loaded with hops to preserve them on the sea journey to India. These styles were malty, full-bodied and flavoured with the bitter, herbal hops common to Europe at the time. This style is the English IPA, and Shepherd Neame is one of the few breweries still doing it today – and we’re extremely grateful they are.

With plenty of caramel-like malt flavour and floral, bitter hops to round it out, the English IPA is pretty perfect when the weather cools off. This one is best served a little warmer than fridge temperature to appreciate all the full-bodied, rich flavours. Throw in some Friday night fish and chips and a footy game on TV and you are doing winter right.

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2. Moon Dog Old Mate Pale Ale

Pale ales don’t get enough credit, but let’s fix that. They are the real all-rounder of the beer world – hoppy enough to be flavourful and interesting, soft enough to be approachable for just about everyone, fruity enough to work in summer, and malty enough to be perfect for winter. What else do you want?

Moon Dog’s Old Mate Pale Ale has long been a staple of the Aussie craft-beer scene and we reckon it should be a staple in your winter, too. The balance of light fruitiness and a bare hint of malty sweetness works perfectly with one of the best winter foods out there: curry. We’d be inclined to lean into the cold and load up on rich, slow-cooked curries like Thai massaman with lamb shanks and big hunks of potato. That’ll warm your soul.

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3. Two Bays Brewing Co. Czech Dark Lager

Go to Czechia in winter and you’ll see that we’ve got it pretty darn easy down here. With nights that regularly drop below zero and only eight hours of sunlight each day during winter, Czech brewers have found beer to be a fine remedy to the chill. Fortunately, you don’t have to go to Prague to get them.

Our favourite gluten-free Aussie brewers, Two Bays, have taken inspiration from our northern compatriots with this Czech-style dark lager, which retains the crisp lightness of a lager while bringing subtle roasty, coffee and bready notes in the dark, gluten-free malt. They reckon it’s an ideal light alternative to dark beers in the summer but, for us, it’s the best winter alternative to the heaviness of stouts when you still fancy those dark beer flavours.

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4. Black Hops GOAT Hazy IPA

Sometimes we don’t want to remember that it’s dark at 5.30pm and cold enough to see our breath outside. It can all be a bit dreary. In those cases, we reckon a bit of summer dreaming is totally fine – and that’s exactly what we’re getting with this hazy IPA from Black Hops.

Black Hops’ GOAT is, perhaps, the actual GOAT of summer beers – it’s juicy, tropical, low in bitterness and super easy-drinking for its 6% ABV. If you’re planning on forgetting that it’s 10 degrees outside and pretending you’re on a tropical island somewhere instead, this is a good start. Crank up the heater, pop on a t-shirt and serve this alongside some spicy tacos, safe in the knowledge that the real summer is never too far away.

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5. Coopers Dark Ale

In an age of trendy new craft breweries, we’re thankful for Coopers. The long-running, family-owned South Australian brewery is probably most famous for its iconic Pale Ale (in the green label) and Sparkling Ale (red), but don’t sleep on their dark beers.

While the decadent Extra Stout is a perfect winter choice, we often find ourselves gravitating towards the excellent Dark Ale. This is a fair bit lighter than a stout, wrapping soft cocoa and light coffee flavours in an easy-drinking ale. We’d be inclined to crack a can of Dark (and ideally pour it into a nice glass) alongside a full, wintery roast – maybe roast beef with all the trimmings? You just know this would be a stunner alongside a gravy-soaked Yorkshire pud.

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6. Monteith’s Black Beer

Trust the Kiwis to bring an age-old German beer style to the modern age. Monteith’s Black is what’s known as a schwarzbier (translating as ‘black beer’ in English), which is essentially a lager made with dark malt. The result is, as you’d expect from a lager, a light bodied and crisp beer, but the dark roasty malts lend subtle chocolate and coffee notes.

So, where and when do you drink a beer that’s both light and crisp and dark and roasty? While you could definitely pair it up with some food (we’d say nothing more than a little spread of soft cheeses and cured meats), we think this is best with a couple of mates in front of an open fire.

$64.99 case (24)

7. Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen

Hefeweizen – those cloudy German wheat beers – are a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure when it comes to seasonal drinking. Yes, they’re fresh and easy-going in the summer warmth (helped along by the classic banana and clove flavours), but beers like Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen will do just as nicely in the winter, we reckon.

Here, you get a full-bodied ale that’s soft, wheaty and wonderfully aromatic – a little ray of light in an otherwise dark and cold winter. Beyond the flavour, though, the beauty of these styles (and their filtered companions, kristallweizein) is that they’re super food friendly. We’d be leaning into a wheat-on-wheat thing and pairing this with a hearty cold weather sandwich – ideally a toastie made with sharp cheddar on proper good sourdough.

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8. Guinness Draught 0.0

I know we said no stouts – and we were reluctant to even mention this beer by name above – but if you want to find a non-alc beer that suits the winter chill, it really does have to be Guinness. One of the best non-alcoholic beers, Guinness Draught 0.0 captures all the texture and flavour that makes the full-strength original such an enduring favourite. Honestly, between the widget in the can that makes the beer pour super smooth and all the characters you hope for in a non-alcoholic beer, the R&D team at St James’s Gate could give Apple a run for its money.

So, how can you enjoy a non-alc stout like Guinness in the cold? Well, ideally bundled up with a steaming bowl of Irish stew and some soda bread on the side. The Irish know a thing or two about cold-weather food and drinks, and it’s worth taking inspiration from their wisdom.

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