Dogwood Winter Ale 2003 (Special Edition)

Formerly brewed at Dogwood Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Atlanta, Georgia USA

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker, Tumbler

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Courtesy of Blazer06. It pours ruby deep red with mocha head. The aroma has some spiciness from yeast and winter like spices but seems to roll quickly into full rich sweet dark fruity esters. The taste is even more so with the dark fruitiness with smooth sweet blueberries and ripe dark grapes mixing with thick sticky malts and smooth mellow spiciness. Nice.

More spice in this winter. Pretty tasty bue a little thin. The aroma was pretty nice but I lost about a fourth of the bottle due to gussing.

UPDATED: DEC 15, 2009
Name: Winter 2003 Spiced
Date: November 29, 2003
Mode: Bottle
Source: Harry’s
Appearance: muddy brown, whispy head
Aroma: sweet licorish aroma overshadowing a hint of cinamon
Flavor: tons of overwhelming spice flavor, lots of clove and ginger
Overall: needs to age a year

Name: Winter 2003 Spiced
Date: June 25, 2006
Mode: bottle
Aroma: clove aroma fills the room upon opening the bottle
Flavor: the clove and ginger flavor still shoots up your nose upon the first sip
Overall: a few more years for this one

Name: Winter 2003 Spiced
Date: December 03, 2009
Mode: bottle
Source: Ale Atlanta
Aroma: still the strong clove in the aroma, touch of cinnamon
Flavor: clove is getting stonger than ever in the flavor, the other flavors are mellowing out and the clove survives

Aroma: 5/10; Appearance: 5/10; Flavor: 5/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 10/20
Rating: 2.6/5.0
Score: ** /4

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

12oz bottle via trade with goldtwins - thanks Larry! - Pours dark brown almost black with a nice tan foamy head. Aromas much like the 03 non spiced but you can pick up nutmeg, cinnamon, lots of chocolate, caramel, and a little alcohol. Flavor is dominated by chocolate, nuts, caramel, and a good amount of nutmeg. Also some raisin though. Palate is smooth and soft with full body and a dry finish. Pretty tasty..

Bottle (1litre #437of2500). Shared with Sammy and DrJay, Sammy’s bottle. Huge gush on opening, I contained it and bled the swing-top cap for a couple of minutes before it was safe to pour ... which was maddening, because this one smelled great!. Poured very murky deep mahogany - some floaties, who cares - with a large foamy-creamy lasting off-white head. Rich, sweet, yeasty aroma of apples, apricots, sweet mulling spices, and yards of sweet yeasty roast caramel malt - terrific, this smelled like an honest-to-God Belgian to me. The taste was just as sweet, yeasty and fruity as the nose, but there was a building counterbalancing bitterness to it - like biting into an apple core - and some nice eartip warming alcohol too. Had a smooth, thick, sticky-syrupy mouthfeel, perhaps a tad light-bodied, but overall one of my favourites of the evening, a real winter warmer! Thanks again for sharing, Sammy - and are sure this isn’t the 2003 Special Edition?

thanks to Aracauna for this one! This has "cellared" in the ’fridge for maybe the last year. Poured with a small off-white head that fell quickly. The body was muddy and full of chunky particulates. Root beer in color and aroma. Lightly sweet and spicy and delivers smoothly with a medium body. Not bad as the spices were well balanced and their presence was just about right.

Thanks to KP for sharing this one. Dark brown color. Small sized white foamy head. Aroma is brown sugar, dark fruit and sweet. Medium bodied winter ale. Malts are fruity and sweet. Lots of brown sugar and molasses. Lots of apples cider and spice flavors as well. Very nice winter ale. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

I’m not 100% sure this is what I had last night on bottle brought by a ratebeerian, but it seems close. Bottle was numbered, 788/2500. Nose was very interesting and complex, cider crossed with a touch of.. fish?! Odd, but good. Mouth was malty and complex as well, quite good. Too bad I won’t get to try this again as they’re out of business.

Pours deep cloudy wood brown with thin tan head. Intriguing aroma of christmas spicy cinnamon, sweet insence, cocoa. Flavor of light pine, cocoa, cinnamon. Totally christmas, but a bit thinner on flavor and palate than it could have been.