Country of Origin: United States
Availability: Winter seasonal.
Price comparison: About twice the price of everyday beer.
Alcohol percentage by volume: 6.1%.
Cute bottle/label? Standard shaped 12-ounce brown glass bottle; label depicting a bunch of snowmen toting cases and six-packs of beer.
Appearance: Dark cola-colored with a short-lived tan head.
Scent: A bit like burnt toast, not in a bad way as such.
Flavor: Slight mocha feel to the taste, with some malt but no detectable hops. Dry finish.
Impressions: This beer was offered to me at the MOBY DICK as an alternative to the Weyerbacher Raspberry Imperial Stout, which was out of stock. It was good, but it just wasn't what I was looking for. Touted as a "strong ale", it wasn't particularly strong, and no matter how strong a strong ale is, it can't ever be an alternative to stout, if stout was what you were craving.
Will I buy this beer again? I didn't dislike this beer, even if it wasn't a stout. I'm not planning on going out of my way to get more (cute snowmen notwithstanding), but if it came my way I wouldn't say no to it. I'd say it'd be a nice winter session ale in the sense that you could probably drink a couple without getting too impaired and not need to relinquish your comfy seat by the fireplace to have a pee. I'd also venture to say this wouldn't taste at all bad washing down grilled meats or strongly-flavored veggies like mushrooms.
Rating:
3 out of 5 cute beer glasses
Reviewed: January 9, 2004
