As cold weather approaches Long Island, beer lovers reach for hearty winter ales to keep the chill at bay. Often known as Winter Warmers, this beer style has its roots in the centuries-old British tradition of brewing robust, high-alcohol beers enjoyed in snow season. Such beers were often aged in barrels like wine, and became known as “Barley Wine.”

Other full-bodied ales called “Old Ales” took on a fruity or chocolaty flavor from roasted malts, floral hops and higher alcohol levels. Classic examples include Samu- el Smith’s Winter Welcome Ale, Young’s Old Nick and Theakston’s Old Peculier Ale. Long Islanders in search of winter ales need not look far, with many local craft breweries featuring winter beers.

“Winter ales typically were amber or brown ales and didn’t have added spices, although some beers called wassail ales used spices similar to mulled wine,” says Peter Tripp, owner of Homebrews and Handgrenades Supply Shop in Baldwin.

American microbreweries began experimenting with winter ales after Anchor Brewing in San Francis- co, brewers of the famous Anchor Steam, made their first Anchor Christmas Ale in 1975. The recipe changes annually but one constant is rich maltiness and spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice. Samuel Adams popularized the use of spices and paid tribute to the British tradition with the ’95 introduction of Old Fezziwig Ale, a brown ale brewed with cinnamon, ginger and orange peel.

Blue Point Brewing’s Winter Ale was one of the first seasonal beers introduced after the brewery was founded in ‘98. The amber ale uses crystal and chocolate malts to add a robust flavor and weighs in at a warming 7.7 percent alcohol by volume (ABV).

Long Ireland Beer Company brews its Winter Ale with five different malts, including Honey Malts and Cararuby for a deep ruby-red color, and uses ginger, allspice and cinnamon for a spicy finish.

Great South Bay Brewery started brewing its Sleigh Ryed Winter Ale soon after the brewery was founded in ‘10.

“We wanted to brew a winter ale right from the beginning and Sleigh Ryed is one of our most unique offerings,” says Head Brewer Greg Maisch.

Maisch got his inspiration from German rye beers, known as Roggenbiers, which use rye malt to give the beer a pronounced spiciness. His recipe uses 28 percent malted rye, roasted barley malt to produce a deep amber color, and juniper berries for a piney finish.

“We mash up whole juniper berries in a food processor and add them into the boil, along with Cascade and Chinook hops for bittering but not overpowering hoppiness,” he says. “Sleigh Ryed is strong at 6.6 percent ABV but has the right balance of malt and spices.”

New local craft breweries also have the seasonal spirit. Head brewer Wayne Milford of BrewSA Brewing, which opened on the Nautical Mile this spring, will brew a winter ale that’s expected to be on tap at his tasting room in December.

Joe Curley, founder and brewer of Tweaking Frog Brewing Company, will brew his debut Winter Warmer on a new 10-barrel system that they share with Jamesport Farm Brewery.

“We’re going to use Golden Promises and Hudson Valley pale ale malt as a base with crystal malts and roasted malts for coloring,” says Curley, noting the name will be chosen from suggestions in a contest held at the Long Island Fresh Hop Festival. “We’re aiming for 7.5 percent ABV and the beer will have a unique estery aroma from the blend of two Belgian yeasts.”

Local homebrewers also brew strong ales to combat the chills. Tripp said that Homebrews and Handgrenades sells ingredients for a variety of winter ales ranging from amber and brown ales to porters and stouts. Dan Concepcion, owner of Brew and Beyond homebrew shop, says he sees customers brewing beers that are higher in ABV that are meant to be sipped slowly.

“To me nothing gives that holiday feel like a nice warming brew with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg,” he says.

Patchogue already boasts Long Island’s oldest craft brewery, Brick House Brewery,founded in 1996, and its largest brewery, Blue Point Brewing, scheduled to open a new 60,000-barrel facility next summer. Craft beer has helped power the revitalization of the bustling South Shore village, with a lively pub and restaurant scene along Main Street catering to visitors and new residents in the hundreds of apartments built downtown in the past few years.

Now Patchogue is getting a third brewery that hopes to fill a niche in the craft beer market by collaborating with other new breweries that have opened across the Island. The simply named Patchogue Beer Project is the brainchild of two well-known residents of the North Shore: Mike Philbrick, the founder and brewmaster of Port Jeff Brewing Co., and restaurateur Ryan DiSpirito, who was looking to branch out into the growing craft beer scene.

“I was ready for a new challenge and a mutual friend told me about a chef who wanted to start a new brewery, and put me in touch with Ryan,” Philbrick said. “I’m excited to do something a little different from Port Jeff Brewing and to be a part of the great things happening in Patchogue.”

Philbrick started out as a home-brewer and after catching the brewing bug received formal training at the World Brewing Academy at Siebel Institute in Chicago. He did apprenticeship brewing gigs at Iron Hill and other breweries in his native Philadelphia area before founding Port Jeff Brewing in 2010 and opening the brewery a year later in a building across from the harborfront that houses a 7-barrel brewing system and a small tasting room.

Port Jeff is well known for its hoppy ales including Party Boat IPA and Schooner Pale Ale. It was the first brewery on LI to install a canning line in 2014, which helped increase distribution across the Island and into New York City and Westchester.

Patchogue Beer Project will be located in the former Cornell Galleries building on West Main Street directly across from BrickHouse Brewery. The building will also house a second location for Local Burger Co., which has its original location in Bay Shore, and a new breakfast and lunch restaurant, Buttermilk’s Kitchen.

Philbrick is heading up the brewing side of operations for Patchogue Beer Project and is installing a 5-barrel brewing system from Premier Stainless, similar to the system at Port Jeff Brewing. The brewery will initially have six 10-barrel fermenters and lots of serving tanks to keep up with expected demand in the tasting room and for take-away growlers.

Philbrick expects to select a head brewer for the new brewery in the next few weeks and be ready to start brewing before the end of the year.

“I want to be able to host other brewers at Patchogue Beer Project and collaborate on new beers, taking advantage of the melting pot of ideas that we have on Long Island,” said Philbrick. “Our first beers will be brewed with BrickHouse and Blue Point, who I know already know very well, and we’re looking forward to having fun with the brewers which will be fun for our consumers.”

DiSpirito will oversee the brewery’s tasting room, where visitors will be able to see the brewing operations through glass.

“We are licensed as a New York State farm brewery,” said DiSpirito, “so we’ll be able to sell other New York State craft beer and wine in the tasting room, along with other farm products and merchandise.”

Philbrick is already a strong supporter of using locally grown ingredients in his beers and his Fresh Hop Ale at Port Jeff Brewing uses hops from Condzella’s Farm in Wading River and Wesnofske Farms in Peconic.

The new brewery is also likely to participate in the Town of Brookhaven’s new Brew to Moo program that is recycling local breweries’ tons of spent grains by feeding it to livestock. In August, BrickHouse Brewery and Port Jeff Brewing became the first two breweries to sign on to the program, in which the Town of Brookhaven makes regular pickups of the spent grains and transports them to the Double D Bar Ranch in Manorville, a haven for abused or unwanted farm animals. The grains are mixed into feed for the livestock, providing protein and fiber that can supplement corn for feed.

“At Port Jeff we were happy to be a part of this program helping rescue animals, and so we want to continue to make it a success,” Philbrick said.

While craft beer’s popularity is decidedly a national trend, Long Island’s growth in the sector has come in large part from the 2012 New York state law creating the “farm brewery” license.

Under it, breweries that agree to v source at least 20 percent of their hops and other ingredients from New York farms can get special privileges, including the right to open as many as five tasting rooms from which to sell beer by the pint and to take away.

The Farm Brewery law was modeled after a 1976 Farm Winery Act that tripled the number of wineries in New York State. What worked for wine has also worked for beer, with the number of craft breweries in the state doubling to over 300, with more than half of those farm breweries. Our region is now home to 20 farm breweries ranging from Barrier Brewing in Oceanside to Greenport Harbor Brewing on the North Fork.

One of the first breweries on Long Island to take advantage of the farm brewery license was Saint James Brewery, which produces Belgian-style ales at its operation in Holbrook. Its name comes from Saint James the Greater, not the north shore hamlet in Smithtown. Brewmaster Jamie Adams, a Long Island native, fell in love with Belgian beers while attending Colby College in Maine.

“I first tried Allagash White, a delicious unfiltered Belgian-style Witbier, at a pub in Portland,” said Adams. “Around that time I was starting to homebrew, so I decided to try as many Belgian styles as I could learn.”

Adams and his wife Rachel founded Saint James Brewery in 2010 after Jamie’s homebrews got rave reviews at the Blue Point Cask Ales Fest and he was encouraged to go professional. Jamie’s devotion to Belgian-style ales includes following traditional Belgian practices in his brewing.

“All of our beers are made with our own proprietary yeast strain,” he said. “This ensures a unique flavor profile across all Saint James beers.”

Among the brewery’s year-round offerings are Rachelle Blanche, a traditional witbier; Biere Des Chevaliers, a dubbel ale; Belgian Style Tripel; and a Quadrupel Holiday Ale made at year end. Fruit ales are made seasonally based on availability, including Peche (peaches), La Mure (blackberries), Pomme (apples), Framboise (raspberries) and Cherie, a blonde ale made with local honey. For the fall, Saint James is planning a seasonal beer using plums to enhance a rich, malty porter.

The lineup uses hops from Condzella Farm in Wading River, peaches and apples from Richter Orchards in Northport and strawberries from Sujecki Farms in Calverton. The brewery also uses malt from grains grown by New York Craft Malt in upstate Batavia.

“While we’re only required to use 20 percent of our ingredients from New York State, some of our beers are 100 percent New York sourced,” he noted.

In 2015, production moved to a 2,000-square-foot brewhouse in an industrial park in Holbrook, from which the couple have focused on distribution to craft beer bars in Manhattan, Brooklyn and across Long Island, as well as selling bottles and growlers at a number of farmers markets across the Island. With further growth in mind, the brewery added new fermenting tanks earlier this year to increase the production capacity of its six-barrel brewing system.

In May, Saint James opened a small tasting room that sells bottles and growlers to take away, and Adams is exploring sites to open additional tasting rooms in more heavily trafficked locations. Potential spots include Manhattan, Brooklyn and Huntington.