There are many reasons to be thankful during late November: weekends start freeing up as rec soccer season ends, leaf piles clogging the streets finally disappear, on sunny days shorts aren’t totally out of the question just yet, and seasonals—the holy grail of beer—are still available.

Harvest beers typically start hitting distributors at the end of August and are supplied  through the beginning of November. These specialty brews are manufactured by microbreweries and craft brewers across the country and only available during this limited time period. They’re like Disney classic DVDs: they’re released for a short window and then get locked back in the vault for another year.

But what exactly is a fall seasonal beer? There are generally three types: Oktoberfests, fresh hop/harvest, and pumpkin brews. Contrary to popular belief, German Oktoberfest season is actually finished by October, which is when harvest and pumpkin beer sales get into full swing.

Hops, the key ingredient used to make beer, is harvested in September and dried to preserve its magic for year-round use. However, some brewers close enough to hops fields use the fresh-picked flowers “wet” to make a harvest beer that has a stronger, distinctively different taste. Two such beers available in the Union County area are Sierra Nevada’s Harvest Wet Hop Ale 2009 13^th Release and Founders Brewing’s Harvest Wet-Hopped Ale. With an alcohol content of 6.7 and 6.5 percent by volume respectively, both harvest brews are only slightly higher than traditional beers, but on the taste scale, they definitely pack a punch with bold, bitter, citrus, and earthy flavors. Founders’ bottle virtually bursts with an initial orange-lemon bite, followed by a malt aftertaste.

Flower Power IPA, which is manufactured by the Ithaca Beer Company in Ithaca, New York, is also a recent seasonal release on local store shelves. The India Pale Ale nears the top of the charts at 7 percent alcohol by volume and is marked by floral and fruit undertones closer to that of a traditional IPA than of a wet hop beer.

Pumpkin ales actually do contain actual pumpkin, pumpkin puree, or pumpkin flavoring. Most are infused with warm spices such as nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and all spice. It has been said that pumpkin beers date back to the days of George Washington and Ben Franklin who both reportedly brewed beers from what they had at hand: pumpkins. While our founding fathers’ drinks are long gone, locals can partake of Four+ Brewing’s Punk’n Harvest Pumpkin Ale, which hails from Salt Lake City, Utah. Punk’n smells a lot like pumpkin pie and has nutmeg and gingerbread notes. The low alcohol content brew (4 percent) starts off with strong flavors but rounds out in the mouth and finishes weaker, which allows the drinker to enjoy more than one and not feel as though s/he’s ingested an entire pumpkin pie.

Also available this time of year but unlike the other fall beers previously mentioned is Geary’s Autumn Ale, “a faithful interpretation of the classic brown ales of Great Britain.” Brewed by the D.L. Geary Brewing Company in Portland, Maine, the dark brew doesn’t look like the bottle’s golden-yellow autumn leaf design, but it does carry the caramel, malty, nut flavorings of a traditional brown ale. The Autumn Ale has an alcohol by volume content of 5.8 percent, and the feel in the mouth is heavier than that of a hoppy or pumpkin beer—just right for the onset of colder weather.

Time is certainly running out on these bottled seasonals, and if the local liquor store has already run through its supply, Trap Rock Restaurant & Brewery in Berkeley Heights has two fall beers on tap (Thorny Rye Pale Ale and Hathor Red, which is a German-style Marzen), and South Orange’s Gaslight Brewery is featuring their Dog River Organic Pumpkin Ale.

If all else fails, fear not. Fall seasonals are making way for specialty winter ales, which many wait patiently all year for. Bottoms up, intrepid drinker!