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Beer Reviews |
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Seasonal Beers |
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Holiday & Winter Beer Reviews 2005 Sprecher Brewing (Glendale, WI) Winter Brew 2005. This one is a dark lager in the bock tradition, rather unusual among winter beers, since most of them are ales (easier and less time-consuming to produce). It is, at least in my memory, the same every year: a medium-gravity, malty brew with hop tones that give it a very good background bitterness. The brewer says of it that “a flavorful blend of dark roasted and sweet caramel malts defines this smooth and robust lager. The rich, nourishing flavors of a full-bodied Munich bock make this Bavarian-style brew perfect for those long winter nights.” It is 5.75% abv and available in Midwest areas close to Milwaukee. This beer, like all Sprecher beers, should be bought refrigerated and kept refrigerated. Don’t buy it if it’s been sitting out on the floor shelves for any period of time. Anderson Valley Brewing (Boonville, CA) Winter Solstice Seasonal Ale 2005. I first drank this ale about 8 years ago and was greatly pleased with it then. I haven’t seen it much since - maybe once or twice in this area. I’m very glad I found it again. It is a very malty, somewhat sweet and mildly spicy beer with nice amber color. This is worth looking for, but is probably not available in lots of places. It is, according to the brewer, “Luscious, creamy, smooth, and warming, this medium bodied ale is brewed with Caramel and crystal malts to give it just a hint of sweetness, then paired with our private blend of holiday spice.” The beer is 6.9% abv, so is getting up there into the winter warmer world. Like the Sprecher beers (see above) this one has no preservatives in it and has not been sterile filtered or heat pasteurized, so needs to be refrigerated. Bell’s Brewery (Kalamazoo, MI) Winter White Ale 2005. We celebrated our 42nd anniversary yesterday (12/28) by traveling around Chicago doing various things. Among the things was dinner at Wishbone Restaurant in the West Loop, a block from Harpo (Oprah) Studios. I asked if they had any seasonal beers on draught. They did, and the one I chose was Bell’s Winter White. The brewer describes it this way: “A Wheat Ale brewed with American Wheat and a proprietary blend of Hefe and classic Belgian-style yeasts. A refreshing winter alternative created from the subtle fusion of two classic flavors.” Turned out to be a great choice. It has a fine nutty and malty flavor with a very subtle hop follow. It serves cloudy (it is a wheat ale, after all) with a fine tall head that leaves Belgian lace on the glass as it dissipates. A completely satisfying beer. Recommended. Available in ten Midwestern and Plains states and Pennsylvania. Brewery Het Anker (Mechelen, Belgium) Gouden Carolus Noël 2005.This is the best of the season so far, an incredibly complex and tasty beer - worth buying by the case if you could. Everyone in the family who took a taste stopped, looked into the glass, tasted again, smiled, and said, “Wow!” It pours with a high head that stays in place for a while, is brown in color, and has a lovely chocolate/caramel aroma tinged with alcohol. It is very much in the tradition of Belgian strong ales (at 10 - 10.5% abv). It is also a high gravity ale (what most people would deem “heavy“). It has a very malty, fruity and sweet flavor that just about defines a “good palate.” This is absolutely a keeper. Makes me want to go out to find some good tripels and quadrupels. But I will restrain myself. Perhaps. Brasserie de Blaugies (Blaugies, Dour, Belgium) La Moneuse Special Winter Ale (in Belgium, labeled “Speciale Noël”) 2005. This is a Belgian saison ale. The brewer states that “Our beers are not filtered, yeast refermented in bottle and conditioned in the champenoise way in 75 cl corked and wired bottles,” which is typical of country/farmhouse Belgian beers. This one is a very fine saison which I liked a lot, but which some of my family members liked less because of how it compared to the Gouden Carolus Noël (see above), which, unfortunately for fair evaluation of this saison, we tasted first. La Moneuse is a blondish ale with a rather sharp flavor, not at all sweet, and a somewhat musty aroma (until it has sat in the glass for a bit). It is 8% abv. According to the brewer, if it is laid down in the bottle, it can last (and age) up to 2 years. Recommended. Capital Brewery (Middleton, WI) Winter Skål 2005. Capital’s web site is particularly useless in describing this beer. One reviewer called the beer “a smooth, balanced amber lager with a nice hoppy finish [that]l almost makes the season worthwhile. This beer is an amber lager in the Vienna marzen style. While the brewery does not state its abv, various sites make it to be between 5.0 and 6.0. It has a sweet aroma and has more substance than most lagers you will run across. A nice, warming beer for the season from one of the really good breweries in the region. Smuttynose Brewing (Portsmouth, NH) Winter Ale 2005. The Smuttynose web site does not devote a special page to any of its seasonal, but does say of this beer that it “is a full-bodied, amber beer brewed with a special Trappist ale yeast. Stylistically reminiscent of a Belgian Abbey Double, it features fruity aromas and flavor, balanced by soft Crystal hops.” It is a very successful attempt at an abbey dubbel, and is, indeed, fruity and sweet in flavor. Beer Advocate gives it an 85 rating, this one richly deserved. This is a very good winter ale. No information on its abv level. Available mostly in New England. Long Trail Brewing (Bridgewater Corners, VT) Hibernator 2005. Billed as a Scottish Ale, first introduced in 1995, this beer’s name, ending in “-ator” brings the vague suggestion that it might be a double bock. It isn’t. It is brewed from October through March. It bills itself as a “hearty and robust, malty brew” and as a “winter warmer.” If is not clearly any of these things either. It is 5.6% abv. Beer Advocate gives it an 85 score, which is extremely generous. It is very much a middle-of-the-road beer with nothing at all distinctive about it. Available mostly in New England in 6- and 12-packs, as well as in 5 gallon “logs” and 50L kegs. Three Floyds (Munster, IN) Alpha Klaus 2005 (no entry for this beer on their web site). This beer is a porter that comes in 22 oz bottles. It pours rich and dark in the glass with a dense head that takes a while to dissipate. The hop aroma is very strong off this brew. The initial taste, like most Three Floyds beers, is almost assaultively hoppy. But behind the hop is a richness of malt that is excellent. According to several reviewing sites, the brewer says of this beer that it is “a big Christmas Porter brewed with English chocolate malt and Mexican sugar and of course tons of strange American hops!” It is 7.5% abv. Available only in Indiana and Chicagoland. Gordon Biersch Brewing (Chattanooga, TN Corporate Office, multiple US locations) Winter Bock 2005. Our Mountain View, CA correspondent Bill Nyden reports that “This evening I enjoyed Gordon-Biersch's holiday offering, a good,sweet, strong Winter Bock, almost thick enough to chew. It took me a while--and a bit of an effort--to finish my second pint. Very filling. Unfortunately, they don't bottle it. Back to Top My personal additional note on this beer: not only do I agree with Gibbons, but let me register my great disappointment in this brewery’s effort. Perhaps we can chalk it up to the effects of hurricanes, but whatever the reason, this beer does not even qualify to be mentioned in the same conversation as the one about the great Abita Christmas Ale of the past. Gibbons nominates the Fleur-de-lis Restoration Ale as the more legitimate Abita Winter beer entry, not least because for every six-pack purchased Abita is donating $1 to the effort to restore New Orleans. Goose Island Christmas Ale 2005 (Chicago, IL). See also the brewpub description of this ale. Left Hand & Tabernash Brewing (Longmont, CO) XXXmas Ale 2005 Update 12/23/05: Steve Zimmermann notes that Left Hand and Tabernash have taken down their web site, so information on their beers will have to wait until they have the sense to put it back up again. One would think that if they have new stuff they want to show that they could develop it while the old site remained. But what do I know? Original Review. This contribution comes from our Colorado Correspondent Steve Zimmermann. “I went down to the banks of the mighty St Vrain River to visit Left Hand & Tabernash Brewing Company's tasting room on Tuesday, intending to fill a couple of growlers with their excellent beers. I asked the very Teutonic barmaid (excuse me, barsalesperson) about Left Hand's special winter brew, XXXMas Ale, and she drew me a sample. Hmmm: deep copper color, a little sweet, malty/chewy, and well spiced with nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, orange zest and ginger. A nicely melded combination of flavors, softly carbonated and not too hoppy. According to Left Hand's description in [their now defunct web site], the strong ale packs 30 IBU's at an ABV of 8.60%, so this is a good beer to bring home and savor by the fire when you don't have to leave the house again for a good long while. Editor’s addition: in my area I haven’t seen Left Hand and/or Tabernash beers in a while, but I’m going to look again! Great Lakes Brewing (Cleveland, OH) Christmas Ale 2005 Brasserie La Choulette (16 rue des écoles, F 59111 Hordain, France) de Noel 2005. Cropton Brewery (Cropton, Nr. Pickering, North Yorkshire, UK) Rudolph’s Revenge 2005 Breckenridge Christmas Ale 2005 Anchor Steam “Our Special Ale” 2005 Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale 2005 Samuel Adams “Old Fezziwig” Samuel Adams Holiday Porter |
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