Lost Coast Winterbraun Ale

While perusing the beer aisle at Whole Foods, I discovered this bottle of Lost Coast Brewery's Winterbraun Ale. I like brown ales, and I like winter beers, so it was a natural. It poured a deep brownish red with a small beige head. The aroma was toffee, and chocolate. This brown is richer, spicier, and more chocolaty than their Downtown Brown, which I also enjoyed. It finishes with a nice lingering bitterness. This was an excellent selection! Once again, Lost Coast has made a great beer.

Ridgeway Brewing's Bad Elf Winter's Ale

From the label:

'Tis a heavy hand what adds the hops to this festive golden ale. Truth be told, there's near to three pounds of fresh hops goes in every barrel of this treasured brew. And it's conditioned ready for winter sipping from your best flagon.'

This is a pretty good description of this ale. It's filled with earthy English hop flavor. This is one of the best English ales I have tasted. Lots of malt sweetness and plenty of hop flavor and aroma. It poured a lovely golden color with a nice lacy head. It's a bit stronger than a traditional English ale, at 6% abv. This is part of a series of "Elf" beers from Ridgeway, and is the mildest of the group. It is accompanied by Very Bad Elf at 7.5%, Seriously Bad Elf at 9.0%, Criminally Bad Elf at 10.5%, and the appropriately named Insanely Bad Elf at 11.2%. I will definitely be working my way up the series! Oh yeah, there's a 4.5% version of this beer, but I don't see any sense in going backwards.

St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel

St. Feuillien is an Abbey brewery established back in 1125 AD. I'm not sure what it is about Monks and brewing, but they definitely go together well. Tonight I tasted their Cuvee de Noel, which was part of a 3 beer assortment which also netted me the nice glass you see in the photo. There's something special about drinking a beer from a glass that was designed for it. Being a Christmas or holiday beer, this beer has a fuller body than many Belgian ales, and a vinous quality. Alcohol is at 9.0% abv, so it's a nice sipping beer, although it went well with my pork roast too. It tastes of dark fruit and has the traditional Belgian yeast character as well. St. Feuillien also makes a very nice Tripel, which was also in the assortment, and a Bruin rounded out the trio. I'm looking forward to trying the Bruin next.

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale 2008

What better beer for New Years Day than a Celebration Ale from Sierra Nevada. I've tried numerous Sierra Nevada brews over the years, and they've never let me down. During the past holiday week, I picked up a six-pack of this ale while visiting some family members who don't have a dedicated beer/wine/mead fridge. Sierra Nevada brews this ale every year and it's won numerous awards. It's basically an IPA with a little more horsepower. It poured a clear copper color with an inch-tall head. The head diminished to about 1/4 of its original size, but lasted to the bottom of the glass, leaving plenty of frosty lacing. The first sip lets you know it's an IPA, with plenty of grapefruity "C' hops - Chinooks, Centennials, and Cascades. The 6.8 % alcohol level became apparent as I got closer to the bottom. The big hop presence was neatly offset by plenty of malt sweetness. Sierra Nevada is a talented brewery - Fritz Maytag knew what he was doing when he bought it way back when.

Redhook Winter Hook Winter Ale

I always look forward to this time of year, because it seems like the most interesting and flavorful beers are released during the fall and winter. Spring and summer are all about light mild beers, while the cooler months bring out the Oktoberfests, the spicy Winter ales, the Barleywines, and more. So I popped the top on Redhook's Winter ale with some anticipation. It poured a deep copper, nearly brown color with a small off-white head. It smelled of caramel and pine-scented hops. So far, nothing extraordinary. The first sip followed the same pattern. It was a pretty unremarkable ale, with the most prominent feature being the piney hops in the finish. As it warmed it became a little sweeter and more flavorful, but overall, it was just another ale. I was hoping for something more.

Leinenkugel Fireside Nut Brown Ale

I was in Publix this afternoon, getting some last minute 'stuff' for Turkey day and saw this beer in the cooler. Leinenkugel is not very well-represented in Florida - usually I can only find their wheat beers - so this was a pleasant surprise. I don't buy many six-packs, but since this was a seasonal beer, and I had never seen it before, I thought "Why not?". The description on the six-pack holder also intrigued me (which is what it's supposed to do). The beer poured a chestnut brown with a small whitish head. The aroma was of milk chocolate and malt, while the flavor was very unique. It tasted of milk chocolate and hazelnuts and was pleasantly sweet. My wife tasted it, to help me identify another flavor I was having trouble defining, and said "this tastes like Dr. Pepper". After another sip, I realized she was right. All in all, this was a very pleasant, easy-drinking beer that I don't mind having a six-pack of. It is modest in alcohol, so it could easily be a session beer. I hope that finding this new variety is a sign that I'll be able to find some more Leinie's in Florida in the future.

Saranac Winter Wassail

I still have some beers left from last year's Saranac "12 Beers of Winter" assortment, and Winter Wassail is one of them. It poured a deep amber-brown color with a small off-white head. It's brewed with traditional holiday spices and orange peel, and they give it a subtle spicy fruitiness. Mouthfeel is a little thin for a winter beer. I would have preferred something a little bit heavier in body, and higher in alcohol. The spices were well-balanced, not over-the-top. This was pretty tasty, but I think it could have benefitted if it was more of a "Winter Warmer". F.X. Matt has a new Winter assortment this year, with 4 new beers in it. I hope I can find it here in Orlando!

Petrus Winterbeer

Tonight's beer is from Belgium, brewed at Brouwerij Bavik in Bavikhove. It's called Petrus Winterbeer, and it's my first winter seasonal this year. It poured a medium brown color with a large fluffy white head that diminished rapidly. It's pretty well-carbonated as many Belgian ales are, and is light to medium in body. It's fruity and spicy, with some sweet malt and raisins coming through at the end. I know it's a little early for winter (even though Wal-Mart is already playing Christmas music!) but I have a weak spot for beer bottles with Santa on them. This was a good warmup for the season, and I'll be looking forward to the rich, malty, spicy, syrupy beers to come!