Country of Origin: United States
Availability: Winter release only.
Price comparison: Dunno. It was part of my Beer of the Month Winter shipment, which was a gift. I've never seen this beer available locally, but I know that it must be, because the bottle has a CT refund listing of 5¢ on its label.
Alcohol percentage by volume: 5.94%.
Cute bottle/label? Standard brown glass twelve-ouncer with an attractive snowy-mountain-blue-sky-intensive label. The copy on the side of the label is delightfully pretentious, chock full of fun adjectives such as "aggressive" and "assertively hopped."
Appearance: A pretty reddish brown with an off-white head, leaving rings of lace on the glass.
Scent: I detected a touch of cranberry at first inhalation. Also brown sugar, raisin, and a touch of yeast and hops.
Flavor: Very citrusy and hoppy, with sweet malts and not a lot of spiciness.
Impressions: Went down altogether too smoothly. I don't mean to imply that this is a bad thing in the slightest. If you like beer at all, this is an ideal example of what to be looking for: not too strong to drink by itself, yet strong enough that you can get a buzz faster than by consuming equal amounts of domestic macrobrews; flavorful enough to hold your interest by itself, but not so overpowering that it would insult cheese or seafood; a winter beer that you could, conceivably, drink whilst sitting in an armchair by the fireplace, but not so spicy that you couldn't just sit at the bar and enjoy it for what it is.
Will I buy this beer again? Guess I'll have to. I've only got two bottles left and I think I'm going to have to trade at least one of them. It's only available in wintertime, so I'll have to act pretty fast. The worst thing about it was the copy, and, frankly, I got a kick out of that. It was just so ... silly.
Rating:
4 out of 5 cute beer glasses
Reviewed: January 1, 2007
