Chatting about the joy of winter beers with Craig Thomas, Master Cicerone

It’s winter, time to curl up by a crackling fire with a blanket and a hot cup of cocoa.

Or if you happen to be a beer lover, perhaps a glass of pitch-black, high-octane beer – peanut-butter stout, maybe, or oak-smoked doppelbock – that will warm you from the inside out.

The coldest months are peak season for winter beers, a slightly amorphous category defined by production date, alcohol content and spice flavors that can resemble a mincemeat pie.

Enjoyed hundreds of years ago in societies such as English and Norse...