Beer of the Week is sponsored by the Lion & Rose. Each week, we introduce you to a wonderful brew that’s a little bit different and well worth seeking out.

Thanksgiving is coming up in a few days. Have you stocked up on beer for the big bird day?

Usually, food writers like to talk about wine with the meal and how hard it is to find something good that goes with everything on the table. (“Cabernet Sauvignon is so bold that it dominates the bird so where you just can’t taste the meat.” “Nothing but a sweet wine can stand up to the cranberry sauce.”) If you find all of that talk too confusing or too dull, so be it. Just remember, the easiest answer is one that applies to beer as well as wine: Drink what you like.

But if you enjoy studying the nuances of a drink and trying to figure out what on the table would go with a certain beverage, then pop a few tops and start sampling.

The easiest way to start is to think about all that food you’ll be serving. If you’re following a traditional Thanksgiving, it will be turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole or some variation. Just about everything on that list is a seasonal item, brown or earthy in color, suggesting for fall and winter.

So, why not think seasonal with your choices?

Darker beers or winter warmers are natural partners to this magnificent feast, as are pumpkin ales or yeasty bock beers. Here are five beers that have been featured in previous Beer of the Week write-ups that would do justice to your harvest celebration.

Chimay Grand Rèserve — Flavors of bread warm out of the oven and caramel candies mix with autumnal pear, fig and apple all mingle in this extremely rewarding creation. Think of how they will enhance the flavors of every item on your table, including the notoriously fussy cranberry dish. You may want to get this in 750 milliliter bottles and impress your wine-loving friends with how fine a beer can be.

St. Peter’s Old-Style Porter — Porter is a winter warmer, the kind of brew you want with mashed potatoes, gravy and buttered bread. You could even mix it with sparkling wine in a 5:3 porter to wine ratio for a very different party drink known as a Midnight Sloosh.

Newcastle Brown Ale — The “never bitter beer,” as this satisfying brew has been dubbed, adds a pleasant sweetness to the meal, whether in contrast to butter-basted meat or as a malty complement to the bread in the stuffing or the spice in the pumpkin pie. It is so food friendly, it could sidle up to just about everything on the table.

Franziskaner Weissbier — Though this beer generally goes best with lighter fare, which is anything but Thanksgiving dinner, there’s something about the citrus quality with notes of clove and nutmeg swirling aroun the palate that suggest it would be wonderful with sweet potatoes, all buttery and topped with toasted pecans and a dash of warm cinnamon and vanilla. With a bowl of those, who needs the rest of the meal?

Crispin Natural Hard Apple Cider — Refreshing in summer, Crispin is an equally welcome antidote to the heaviness you can feel while eating your way through the massive spread. Its acidity helps cut through the denseness of the gravy, the soup-sauce in the green bean casserole, even the weight of pumpkin pie.

Beer of the Week is sponsored by the Lion & Rose. Each week, we introduce you to a wonderful brew that’s a little bit different and well worth seeking out.

Newcastle Brown Ale

One of my best friends introduced me to Newcastle Brown Ale when I was in college, and it’s a beer we still share however many years later whenever we get together.

It’s distinctive, certainly worthy of the slogan “The One and Only” that adorns each bottle.

The clear glass bottle means you can see from the moment you pick it up that this is a brown ale. It also means you probably shouldn’t hold on to a Newcastle too long, though one bottle will lead you to consume the rest in relatively short order.

Pour this beauty into a tall stein or mug and you’ll notice a decent foam at first, but it quickly dissipates into a thin lacing over the top of the glass.

The nose is filled with malty, bready scents with a touch of something sweet, almost cherry-like mingled in.

You’ll get some of that sweetness from your first sip when a noticeable caramel or roasted brown sugar element comes up front, along with malt, almond or pine nut, and bread. You can see why it was nicknamed the “never bitter beer.”

The mouthfeel is light-bodied and it feels clean. There’s no viscous quality, threatening to leave a residue on the tongue. There’s also a touch of malt again on the finish, but it doesn’t linger, meaning it goes down smooth and easy.

The label tells you that Newcastle was intorduced in 1925 by a Colonel J. Parker (no relation to Elvis’ Colonel Parker, at least that I know of). It took three years, though, before the brewer got the recipe right and it swept the 1928 International Brewery Awards, which accounts for the gold medals on its label.

The late great beer and scotch writer Michael Jackson (no relation to the singer, thankfully) notes in his “Great Beer Guide” that the marketing men at Newcastle removed the word “ale” from the label back in 2000 because it was deemed old-fashioned. This only happened in England, and not the rest of the world, which apparently appreciates ale more than “mad men.” The word was restored a few years later without any fanfare when the change in the label produced no difference in sales. Thankfully, those geniuses did not suggest the brewery change the formula for what goes inside the bottle.

Though the beer is on the sweet side, it does pair well with a great many bold=flavored dishes. At the Lion and Rose, it would partner nicely with Hackney Hot Wings, Bangers and Mash, Beggars Pouches with four cheeses inside, the Pub Burger and the Whiskey Steak. In other words, it likes food as much as you and I do.

The Lion and Rose has draught Newcastle Brown Ale for various prices depending on the size you want.