Tag Archives: winter ale

CARTON DECOY

Fulsome winter warmer with Belgian strong ale roots plies sugary dried fruiting to chocolate-spiced whiskey malting. Coming on thick and heavy, its chewy raisin, fig and prune conflux picks up bruised orange and black cherry notions. Advertised cumin, coriander, lavender, red peppercorn and honey influence Belgian candi-sugared sweetness. ’13 version: brown-sugared cinnamon-nutmeg-ginger spicing upped alongside sharpened alcohol astringency for even bolder winter warmer.
 
 

BRECKENRIDGE CHRISTMAS ALE

Unbound 2012 winter warmer, less dependent on usual holiday spicing than conventional Christmastime fare, begs for more distinct flavor profile. Dewy peat-smoked earthiness, ashen tobacco-dried chocolate malting and dark caramel sweetness serenade caraway-crusted rye-floured molasses-sapped black breading. But brown-sugared cinnamon-nutmeg-allspice seasoning and tertiary plum-fig-date conflux need richer assertion.   
 

SOUTHERN TIER 2XMAS

Invigorating winter warmer emulates Swedish glogg by bridging autumnal brown-sugared pumpkin pie likeness to sweet Christmastime spicing and muted mull-spiced wining. Fig-sugared stewed prune, golden raisin, bruised cherry and mandarin orange peel fruiting picks up wintry gingerbread, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom and clove seasoning. Pecan, butterscotch, vanilla and sugar cookie illusions penetrate the fruitcake finish.  

NORREBROS JULEBRYG

Ornate Danish-styled Christmas Ale offers fig-sugared raisin sweetness to molasses-sapped caramelized rye malting and mildly coarsened earthy hop astringency. Ginger-spiced clove, cinnamon and nutmeg seasoning provide mild wintry warmth alongside subdued bourbon-burgundy wining. But fruit-caked cherry, prune and plum illusions need deeper penetration.

   

(DEL BORGO) 25 DODICI

Enticingly sour-fruited copper-burnished winter warmer brewed with ‘bitter orange pill’ retains Blackstrap molasses bittering over dank cellar-wafted musk. Orange-rotted dehydrated fig entry picks up vinous cider, dried apricot, sour white grape and green raisin murk as earthen black-peppered hops surge past contrasting candi-sugared sweetness. Heightened 9.5% alcohol volume hidden beneath musty fruit esters. A well-integrated seasonal never undone by lack of expectant wintry spicing. 

PIKE AULD ACQUAINTANCE HOPPY HOLIDAY ALE

Faultily labeled a wintry seasonal since expectant Christmas spicing never makes a dent, losing out to astringent hop sopping and cardboard-like glass sugaring. Advertised coriander and orange peel influence nullified by ESB-like peat graining or helles bock-like wheat biscuit pleasantry. Murky orange-dried apricot-grape spell and phenol cinnamon-nutmeg spicing never catch on. Bet it’s way better on tap at Pike’s Seattle venue, though.