Scary-Good Beers for Halloween

	What's On Tap

Holidays are the perfect excuse to enjoy a drink or two, and Halloween is no exception.

While the kids are counting candies and swapping sweets, which tricks should you treat yourself to?

To fit the season and the mood, go for dark beers and autumnal ales. Jerald O'Kennard of the Beverage Testing Institute and Tastings.com says strong, substantial beers are right in tune with this time of year.

"Halloween is ... towards the end of the year, and you want something rich, something that has a lot of character to it, something that you can just relax with [and] get through the cold nights with," O'Kennard says.

Just because a strong beer fits the occasion, it doesn't mean it must be excessively dark. One of O'Kennard's top Halloween picks, in fact, is the refreshing Full Sail Wassail, from Oregon. "It's an old English style of beer. It's actually a really tasty, darker beer that's brewed with a little bit of spice. So it's got a nice, roasted kind of nut flavor, with a little bit of spiciness." Sample it yourself for about $7 per six-pack.

Another standout is the honey-amber Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale. Winter Welcome is one of the best recipes from one of the oldest breweries in England, O'Kennard says, excellent "if you're a fan of Pilsner-style beers. This is an ale, but it has a lot of that crispness [like] a Pilsner beer."

Tastings.com describes it as a "dry-yet-fruity caramelized malt with dried orange peel, citrus and buttered-toffee flavors."

Calling it a nice, celebration kind of beer, O'Kennard adds that Winter Welcome is slightly more substantial, containing about 5% alcohol. You may have to head to a specialty beer store for this one, where you can find it for about $10 for a 12-ounce four-pack.