Last night was our December beer group tasting. Since it is nearing Christmas and winter is underway, it made sense to make this a Christmas/Winter brew tasting.
Here's what we tasted and some notes about each brew:
1) Spaten Munchen Dunkel (Munich Dark Lager) - OK, disclaimer we threw in a couple extra brews that were sitting around to fill out the evening. This dark colored lager has a sweet aroma, notes of oats, cereal, toast, tastes sugary, almost like an artificial sweetener with a sticky sweet aftertaste, the color is ruby/brown and it has a very light mouthfeel. This was not my favorite and I actually didn't finish my sample (a first!). 5.1% ABV, more here.
2) Bell's Winter White Ale (Witbier) - I'm pretty sure this is a brew that Kalamazoo Brewing Co. used to make before Bell's bought them up. I took a trip out to Kalamazoo in 2007 and stopped for lunch at a Kalamazoo brewpub and had their White Winter Ale. Unfortunately I don't remember what it tasted like and didn't know much about beer styles back then. Anyway, this has notes of banana, warm lemon, almost dank, but has a surprisingly light taste, spicy, clove, citrus, super drinkable and refreshing with a light mouthfeel, sweet overall, and a hazy straw color. 5% ABV, more here.
3) Spoetzl Shiner Holiday Cheer (Dunkelweizen) - smelled awesome like peach candy gummies, taste left us hanging, was flat (yes I know it was Krausened but it just didn't have much life), sugary, some honey, slight tartness that was good but not enough to balance, overall sweet with some pecan notes (not roasted), but mostly of concentrate juice, it had good legs and was smooth. 5.4% ABV, more here.
4) Anchor Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2014 (Winter Warmer) - 40th Anniversary of the Christmas Ale for Anchor, pretty much the original craft brewery in the U.S. Their Christmas ale changes every year. This one has a scent of pine, nutmeg, cinnamon, cereal, tasted of tart fruit, pumpkin/yam (maybe because of the spices that are particular to pumpkin beers), plum, vanilla, lemon, bitter aftertaste, touch too much carbonation, dark brown color and I think we drank this one too warm. I might have liked it better.5.5% ABV, more here.
5) Harpoon IPA - Another non-Christmas beer we threw in. Very floral, some pine, caramel malts, light berries like strawberry and raspberry, menthol and mint, herbal notes, white head with golden/amber color, light mouthfeel that falls off abruptly after hitting all the right notes, but the lightly bitter end just kills the experience for me with this IPA. 5.9% ABV, more here.
6) Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale: Fresh Hop IPA (American IPA) - Not super aromatic, this is a wet fresh hop IPA, spice, citrus, grapefruit maybe just because of the bitterness, herbal, sugary as most IPA's have sugar added, dark amber, thick off-white head with thin legs and a bitter linger. Enjoyed this over the Harpoon. 6.8% ABV, more here.
7) Goose Island Festivity Ale (Brown Ale) - Another brew that changes year to year, by name as well. Malty, caramel notes, alcohol is present but acceptable, cherry, not much aroma, nutty, a light brown foam and mahogany color, also has a hoppy background at 50 IBU. 7.7% ABV, more here.
The winner here is a difficult one, because none of these stood out too much to me as head over heels above the others. I will give joint honors to Bell's Winter White Ale and Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.
