No doubt a number of the seasonal beers at this beer festival will be strong winter ales. The two main styles of winter beers are Old Ales and barley wines. Old Ale originally was a beer that had matured in oak tuns and mellowed to a full flavour but was not necessarily of great alcoholic strength. Historically it was a beer brewed for blending with fresh pale and brown ales. It was one of the essential ingredients in early porters. Old ales now are allowed to mature in the cask or bottle. Many readers will be familiar with Theakston's Old Peculier (ABV 5.6%) a rich, full bodied, dark brown, strong ale. Another example is Orkney Dark Island (4.5%) which won Champion Beer of Scotland this year and is described as 'full of malt, roast and fruit'. Other Old Ales have more in common with strong milds and are similar in strength. A good example is Harvey's Sussex XXXX Old Ale which, whilst only having an ABV of 4.3%, still achieves a rich and fruity flavour.

There is a degree of overlap between Old Ales and barley wines. Barley wines were brewed in the 18th century to compete with French wine. New malting techniques allowed strong beers to be produced that were pale in colour. Some beers were brewed in spring to be matured and drunk in the autumn and known as October beers; others were known as malt wines. Barley wines are usually over 6% as a result of longer fermentation times. Traditionally they are sold in 1/3 pint 'nip' measures or bottles. For many years Bass No 1 (ABV 10.5%) was the leading barley wine, and has now been revived by the Museum brewery. A Northern example is J W Lees annual Harvest Ale (11.5%). Other barley wines include Orkney Skullsplitter (8.5% - Champion Winter Beer of Britain in 2001) and Robinson's Old Tom (8.5%) which came third in the barley wine category of CAMRA's National Winter Ales Champion beer competition last January. It has a complex range of flavours including chocolate, maltiness, port and fruit.

CAMRA's National Winter Ales festival takes place on 29-31 January 2004 at the Town Hall Burton on Trent and will have 100 real ales.