Much as Halloween candy and costumes are being replaced with candy canes, wreaths and trees in the seasonal aisle, holiday beers are finding their way to the nation's shelves and taps.

Oktoberfest, pumpkin beers, harvest ales and fresh hop beers are still out there, but brewers have been releasing holiday varieties since at least September. Why? Because nobody goes for spicy ales and reindeer labels in January. Also, beer shipments that exceed 15 million barrels during peak summer months slowly trickle to about 12 million barrels in December and slightly less during the Thanksgiving holiday season in November, according to the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Seasonal beers are about as good as the beer industry gets during this time of year.

While seasonal beers only account for about 4% of all bar and restaurant craft beer sales, according to market research firm IRI, they made up 17% of all supermarket craft beer sales last year and increased 17% from 2013. Granted, that still puts seasonal sales well behind IPA's 23% share of all craft beers, but the Brewers Association craft beer industry group points out that there's one time of year when seasonals outshine (and outsell) IPA: September through December.

Call it the pumpkin beer effect if you'd like, but beer drinkers' tastes tend to drift toward maltier, higher-alcohol beers around this time of year. About 91% of American holiday consumers food and beverages onto their holiday shopping in 2012, but spending on that holiday party cheer rose from $86 per person in 2008 to more than $118 this year. That's a difference of almost a full case per person, and a whole lot of cash on the table for breweries during their slow season. It's the reason Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller/Molson Coors joint venture MillerCoors have put together formidable winter variety packs in recent years and why Boston Beer Company's Samuel Adams and Craft Brew Alliance's Widmer Brothers, Redhook and Kona brands all stake themselves to winter variety packs.

Though the bigger players tend to wait a bit before releasing their winter beers, here are ten examples of holiday cheer available now:

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Santa's Private Reserve Ale

Rogue Ales

Newport, Ore.

We thought about including Rogue's Yellow Snow IPA here instead, but if they're going to break out a winter beer with Santa Claus on the bottle on November 1, who are we to argue the point?

A 5% alcohol-by-volume red ale is fairly mild as holiday seasonals go, but the dark Munich malts give it just enough biscuit flavor to balance out proprietary Rogue hops that give this beer some pine aroma and spruce bitterness. This more than 15-year-old beer has been bringing a little bit of Oregon tree farm into holiday homes longer than many of its shelfmates have existed, but a few sips of this basic, low-octane red ale are a holiday tradition worth keeping.

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Mad Elf

Troegs Brewing Company

Harrisburg, Pa.

This one's been out since mid-October, but it's how East Coast beer drinkers love to mark the changing seasons.

Mad Elf's ruby red appearance is as welcome at the holiday dinner as port, mulled wine or Beaujolais Nouveau. Its Saaz and Hallerstrau hops are bold without delivering an IPA-style bite while the pilsner, Munich and chocolate malts provide the smoothness of a stout or dark bock.

The core of its sweetness and strength, though, is a mix of Belgian honey and cherries that's Christmas-candy. At 11% ABV, Mad Elf is pushes revelers into "long winter's nap" territory, so don't underestimate the little guy.

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Abominable Winter Ale

Hopworks Urban Brewery

Portland, Ore.

Hopworks released this during a bike-and-beer festival in early October and hasn't lost a whole lot of sleep over it

Packed with Cascade, Centennial, Chinook and Simcoe hops and organic Munich and caramel malts, Abominable and its 7.3% ABV are an ideal Northwest holiday beer. It has a lovely pine aroma, some grapefruit and spice in its hop bitterness and just enough caramel sweetness to remind drinkers it's a seasonal beer. The face on the can is a little scary, but this lively little holiday beer isn't as toothy as it seems.

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Brown Shugga'

Lagunitas Brewing Company

Petaluma, Calif.

We don't give a damn about 50% of this brewery being purchased by Heineken this year. It could be 50% owned by Kruger Industrial Smoothing and this October-release beer would still taste like a slice of holiday heaven.

Without resorting to snowflakes, Santas, wreaths, garland or even a mere mention of the season beyond sprigs of holly, this beer captures the holiday season better than many beers that are actually trying. It resulted from a failed batch of Lagunitas' seasonally appropriate Old Gnarlywine back in 1997, but overdoing it on the brown sugar lent this beer a caramel sweetness (and dangerously undetectable 9.9% ABV potency) that can outdo any gingerbread cookie or fruitcake you put in front of it. However, that piney Centennial hop bitterness keeps it from being sickeningly sugary. That said, it's sweet brown semi-imperial that's earned not only its name, but a place at the holiday table.

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Jubelale

Deschutes Brewing Company

Bend, Ore.

How do you release this beer each year in September and not have people calling for your head? Do so in Bend.

This is exactly the time of year Bend longs for. Sitting along the Deschutes River flanked by the snowy tops of Mount Batchelor and the Sisters peaks, Bend teems with ski areas and snowshoeing terrain dotted with pine forests and Christmas tree farms. Bend not only wants

Jubelale is surprisingly pleasant and mild for holiday ale from a town that loves its hops and high alcohol content. Its a caramel-sweet but molasses-cookie rich Strong Ale with 6.7% ABV, Jubleale goes down deceptively easy thanks to its roasted barley malt.

Its deep garnet color is matched in beauty only by its label's ever-shifting artwork. This year's installment by Bend artist Taylor Rose features hikers and their sweater-clad dog walking in the first snowfall along a trout-filled river. It's a scene about as warm as the beer behind it, but then that's kind of the point.

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Double Red IPA

AleSmith Brewing Company

San Diego

AleSmith is moving into its huge new brewery and tasting room in Miramar, giving its old brewery to the folks at Mikkeller and making a few other changes along the way. Chief among them is ditching the YuleSmith name for this imperial red ale. Why? Well, for one, YuleSmith was a 9.5% ABV beast, where this knocks down the potency to 8.5%, but keeps a whole lot of the pine aroma. That's fair warning about the pink-grapefruit bitterness that's coming, but a little bit of caramel from the malt evens it out a bit. No, it doesn't have a wreath on its 22-ounce bottles anymore, but there's still plenty of spirit in this beer.

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Fireside Chat

21st Amendment Brewery

San Francisco

It's a lot less friendly than that blanket-clad Franklin Delano Roosevelt on its 12-ounce can would suggest.

It's built on the foundation of a rich, English ale and a whole lot of Munich, crystal, chocolate and black malts which gives it the dark haze of a strong brown ale. The 7.9% ABV puts the emphasis on "strong," despite cocoa nibs, cinnamon, clove and other holiday spices meant to soften it a bit. This beer hit shelves in October, but it's been waiting for the cold for a good, long time.

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12 Dogs Of Christmas Ale

Thirsty Dog Brewing Company

Akron, Ohio

This is the big dog of Ohio holiday ales. A deceptively complex winter warmer whose cocoa-and-molasses backbone is perked up with some honey, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon. That 8.3% alcohol content doesn't show up until the end of your sip and doesn't stick around long enough to make your regret it. It's as close as gingerbread should get to beer form and, as of November 1, it's ready to make a Charlie Brown-style attempt at getting drinkers into the holiday spirit.

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Hibernation

Great Divide Brewing Company

Denver

Sure, they'll make you wait until December for the barrel-aged version, but there's no way Great Divide could keep a lid on its 20-year-old holiday favorite until Halloween.

Released in October, Hibernation has stayed true to the caramel-and-biscuit character of its English Old Ale style since 1995. Though available in bottles and cans now, this 8.7% old-timer has become a holiday mainstay among both craft beer traditionalists and seasonal newcomers. While it definitely isn't the hoppiest holiday beer out there, Hibernation is more of a winter warmer than many of its spicier counterparts that have come and gone since.

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Isolation

Odell Brewing Company

Fort Collins, Colo.

Again, when you eagerly await that first snow of the season, you kind of want a winter ale as soon as possible, too.

The Colorado brewers have mastered this caramel-colored, brown-sugar-flavored Old Ale style largely because they know their audience. At just 6% ABV, however, Isolation is a bit easier on that fan base than many of its contemporaries. Sure, it lacks the punch of a Belgian quad or Strong Ale, but it's an easy-drinking holiday treat that doesn't overwhelm with spice. Sure, it can be considered a holiday beer, but to many of the folks who drink it, any day you can get on the slopes is worth celebrating.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held TK positions in the stocks mentioned.