Dogwood Winter Ale 2001

Formerly brewed at Dogwood Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Atlanta, Georgia USA

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

Appearance: Pours a hazed, orange-amber body with a thin, oh-so tired ring of white bubbles. Smell: Interesting aroma of a particularly fruity, aged past it’s peak wine, like a Viognier, perhaps, served up with a pairing of local jams and jellies. Taste: Sweet candyish, honeyed flavor with a blend of fruit flavors: golden raisins, yellow apples, and peach jelly. Light oxidative hints throughout, but nothing to fret over. Nil bitterness as the hops long ago picked up stakes and moved on. Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body. Medium-low carbonation. Rather sticky mouthfeel at this point. Drinkability: It’s interesting to see how this has changed and morphed since it was first released, though I’ll echo the sentiment of its initial reviewer, beergirl99, and say that, years later, it is still a very nice ale.

Bottle shared by kp. Pours a hazy light golden amber with a small off-white head that didn’t hang around for long. The aroma was fairly sweet with lots of light fruits and some esters from the yeast. Taste followed the aroma with a dominate light fruit sweetness and some Belgian yeast. Mouthfeel is pretty carbonated given the age and sticky sweet in the finish. Despite showing some signs of age with hints of oxidation in the aroma and taste, this one has held up exceptionally well for the age.

(12oz bottle, thanks artusory) Small beige head atop lightly hazed light amber body. Aroma is medium sweet, stewed apple, apple wine, alcohol. Taste is medium sweet, apple wine, some yeast. Medium body. Hard to believe the ABV was that low.

12oz bottle, courtesy of artusory. Thanks, Ryan! Pours a hazy, golden orange color; off-white head with solid, medium-bubbled retention and lacing. Lots of apples, chewy yeast character and wheatiness, candy sugar in the aroma; some dried caramel from the oxidation, but a very pleasant yeast character overall. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: lively carbonation; almost to the point of champagne-like apple cider; solid acidity and a dense yeastiness and caramel-apple note; probably a bit past its prime, but this is still very generous and very good at this point. Lengthy finish, showing honey, apple, and yeast.

Hazy, light amber with a small white head. Sweet nose with tons of apple cider, some caramel, herbs and riesling. The flavor is lightly sweet with lots of apple, peach, caramel, rye, light oxidation and spice. Medium body is light and lively with high carbonation.

Bottle courtesy of ? (most likely TBC or slob). Pours mahogany with some spritzy bubbles. Smells of ginger, dry malt, touches of spice. Tastes of pepper, sweet malt, sugar, some molasses, hints of spice. Considering its age and ABV, this one held up very well.

A little smokey and quite refreshing for a winter brew. The wheat comes out as the beer warms.

UPDATED: JAN 17, 2009
Name: Winter
Date: November 06, 2002
Mode: Draft
Source: Twains, Decator, GA
Vintage: 2001
Appearance: hazy dark yellow, whispy head
Aroma: spicy sweet aroma
Body: thin body
Flavor: dry malt flavor with a spicyness from start to finish, slightly alcoholic but masked by a hint of sweetness, just a touch of bitterness in the finish

Name: Winter
Date: November 06, 2002
Vintage: 2001
over the last year this beer has gone from a sweet malty beer with a strong spicy burst to a mellower drier beer with a mild spicyness from start to finish

Name: Winter
Date: October 30, 2003
Vintage: 2001
big aroma with a very smooth flavor, only a hint of alcohol

Name: Winter
Date: January 10, 2009
Mode: bottle
Source: GMoT tasting
Vintage: 2001
sweet and spicy, holding up well,

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 5/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Score: **4

The score was calculated based upon the notes and an old scoring system.