You wouldn’t think a beverage spiced with pine needles would be at the top of anyone’s drinking list, but think again.

Steamworks Brewing Co.’s Spruce Goose is its hottest selling winter beer, full of the flavor of blue spruce tips collected from the top of Molas Pass.

“It’s deep red, multi-bodied and full of spruce flavor,” said Joel Hayes, assistant general manager at the popular local bar and restaurant. “It’s about as holidays as it gets.”

Of course, the powder days porter and backside stout, do pretty well for themselves, too, heavier, hoppier and higher alcohol than beers intended for warm weather drinking.

Over at Wagon Wheel Liquors they’re having a hard time keeping Ska Brewing Co.’s Euphoria beer in stock, a winter-only pale ale, which is actually a dark-colored and full-flavored brew.

And Erik Maxson, owner and brewer of Brew Kitchen and Pub, just sold out of his brown ale, but its replacement, a winter stout, is going gangbusters, too.

Heavier flavors like coffee, toffee and nuts abound in winter beers, as does a higher alcohol content, vestiges of its medieval past to warm a cold weather traveler.

Maxson is fondest, however, of his latest, a barley wine he named Gwendolen, with flavors of caramel and a hint of sweetness, common to the beverage. It’s aged three months so the flavors have a chance to develop.

Why Gwendolen?

“I don’t know. It just spoke to me,” he said.