Tag Archives: winter ale

SAMUEL SMITH’S WINTER WELCOME ALE

Well calibrated, boldly boozy, full-bodied winter seasonal not dissimilar to complex pale ales, yet not as distinctively detailed as Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown or Oatmeal Stout. Sweet whiskey malts inform creamy vanilla-butterscotch frontage and cinnamon-nutmeg-spiced fruitiness contrasts slinky orange peel bittering. Sugar plum, stewed prune, and rum cake illusions relieve ancillary red cherry, pear, and marmalade snip to medicinal finish.

GEORGE GALE CHRISTMAS ALE

Slightly turbid, rust-browned, non-spiced holiday ale regaled by corky single malt Scotch oeuvre, leathery peat-smoked earthiness, dehydrated orange tartness and vinegary white wine tannins. Dense prune dryness and fruited hop tang score mid-palate, but complacent finish dulled by diminished chocolate malt souring and dreary cocoa-chalked bitterness.