Fish Tale Winterfish Ale

Brewed by Fish Brewing Company/Leavenworth Beers
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Olympia, Washington USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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12 ounce bottle - $1.99 at Total Wine & More in Kennesaw, Georgia.

Appearance: Pours a hazy, golden-tangerine body with a goodly-sized, foamy, white head. Thin smattering of lace on the descent.

Smell: An opening sniff of pale malts, with bits of grain and sweet-scented honey, folding seamlessly into hoppy aromas of herb and citrus.

Taste: Pale malts, minutely bready, and with a clover honey-esque sweetness. Grassy, herbaceous hops giving over a bit of grapefruit as well. Moderately bitter. A little more maltiness loitering on the back half, but, predominately, it’s hoppy until the bitterish, long finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. Medium carbonation. A bit of creaminess there, too.

Overall: It can be a surprise (good or bad) sometimes to pick up a beer with the word winter as part of the title that isn’t a spiced ale of some sort. Listen, I’ve got a beat-up Nokia phone from 2003. No interwebs access, no fancy-schmancy beer apps, so, I gotta go with what the beer bottle tells me. ’Winter’ on the label can usually imply a malt-forward brew or something potentially packed with spices, the only ingredients listed were "water, orange barley, and hops". I assume yeast was utilized as well at some point. At any rate, a nice brew.

Hoppy aroma has a sour citrus note that has both grapefruit and orange elements plus a woody underpinning. It pours a pretty clear amber with a thick, fine-bubbled white head that leaves some generous lacing. Flavor is hoppy and woody, a little bitter, with more than a hint of fruity sweetness and some citrus. Smooth texture has about average fizz and body. Overall, not terrific, but worthy of a try.

Hay and orange peel nose. Cloudy amber, fine foaties, medium yellow head. Whole orange flavor. Rosehip finish, solidly bitter. Good.

12 oz. bottle from my porch. Literally, I have beer sitting out on my porch to take advantage of the cold weather, and to cut down on costs. Anyways, this has a hazy, golden-coppery color. It had relatively little head to start with, and now it’s just a bald beer, that is - without head. Aroma is of sweet malt, and a touch of honey. What I really like is the citrus aroma that seems to be coming out more and more, as I take more and more whiffs of this. The citrus aroma (mainly oranges) seems to be more pronounced, as it warms. Great texture, along with a relatively great taste. The citrus tastes very nice. The citrus hop bitterness is long lasting, and satisfying. This has a great malt backbone, and really hits the spot. This is a fairly nice brew from a company that I feel has much more potential.

Bottle. Aroma has notes of citrus, flowers and caramel. Medium clear amber hue with a small off-white head that mostly diminished and left good lace. Flavor is medium sweet and heavy bitter. Palate is full bodied and oily soft. Overall a nice big IPA. Aroma is not spicy and it has a nice mouth feel.

Appearance was hazy golden honey with 2 finger lasting rocky head with lots of lacing.Aroma was floral citrusy hops with no hints of alcohol,sweetness the warmer it sits.Taste slight sweetnes in malts,but moslty citrusy herbal with touch of metallic hops. Mouthfeel was creamy carbonation with balanced body of hops and everlasting wet finish. Hopheads will love this...

From the bottle, pours a hazy yellow orange with a thick white foamy head. Lots of floral hops in the nose and tastes the same. Lots of floral hops and citrus, bitter but balanced. A very good ipa.

Cask at the PW. Clear, orange gold pour with a short white head leaving heavy lacing. Good head retention. Nose is fairly balanced for an IPA, with citrus and flowery hops and some sweet malt. Medium body and light carbonation. Caramel, pine and citrus hops, honey. Balance quite different from your typical West Coast IPA, most likely due to this being on cask (CO2 augments hop aromas) and a bit too sweet and sticky for me. I’ve had Fish’s cask PAs and IPAs before at the brewery and they were much better than this.

Bottle. Light to moderate roasted smell for the malt, moderate pine for the hops, light soap for the yeast with a faint hint of pepper. Head is average size, white, between frothy and creamy, with a good yet thin layer of lacing and is mostly diminishing. Color is clear amber. Flavor starts faintly sweet and lightly to moderately acidic, then finishes lightly acidic and moderately to heavily bitter. Palate is on the lighter side of medium, watery with a soft carbonation. Very nice IPA aromas and flavors, and probably the best organic beer I’ve had in awhile.

Growler from tap at Ventis. Pours a clean amber, half inch of white head that dissipated quickly, not much lacing. Malty sweet aroma with floral hop notes. Medium body, malty sweet flavor, lots of hop flavor with only a mildly bitter finish.

Bottle. Amber colored with a short blond head. Aroma is that of city and floral hops, citrus fruit, and soft caramel. Taste is big spicy hops, citrus fruit, orange zest, floral hops, pine, caramel and sweet malt. Body is medium with a moderate, bubbly carbonation. Ends with more citrus fruit, spicy hops, sweet malt, caramel, floral hops, light pine and orange zest.