Garrison Winter Warmer

Brewed by Garrison Brewing Company
Style: English Strong Ale
Halifax, Canada

Serve in English pint, Snifter

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Bottle: Decants a turbid clouded brown colored ale with a 1 finger sticky cap. Soft carbonation obviously unfiltered. Aroma is a complex affair with spice up front and cocoa, earthiness, grains and some mellow ripe fruit esters and a treacle-like touch of sweetness....this intensifies as it warms. Flavor follows aroma with malty cocoa mixing with musty fruits spice and hazel nuts - complexity mid palate - hops add a wonderful support role and hang in the background so the complexity can be savoured. Finish is long wet and malty-yeasty with a small hop bite at the very end. I love this brew! The brewer resisted their normal impulse to over boil hops and the result is the profile on this ale is carried by the complex flavours that develop in a rich unfiltered big ale. I’m impressed. Probably this brewer’s best effort yet.

Murky brown with edges of gold, creamy light brown head. Aroma is sweetly rooty-spicy with some bitter hop. Taste is fairly round and dark-fruity with kola and sarsaparilla, dry herbal hops lead to a nicely dry-balanced finish. Replays of that rooty-spice, mild hop bitter, sweet dark fruit. Tastes a lot like Spruce beer they make.

500ml. Hazy brown with off-white cream head. Sweet, spicy, mild hops and malt. Well carbonated, sweet and relatively smooth with a bit of alcohol booze at the end. Not a great finish but a decent beer.

500 ml bottle, sampled 11/14/08. Dark orange amber colour with a fully lasting pillowy and rocky off-white head. Immediate spicy cinnamon and sugar aroma with some yeasty and bready notes. Bready, orangy, and caramelized sugar malt flavours with a clove phenol, yeasty, and lightly earthy bitter finish. Medium to full bodied, rich and lightly chewy mouthfeel. Nice, but that phenolic note is a bit unpleasant for me - less of a flaw though than a personal taste issue.

Dark Ruby almost black with a light tan lasting bubbly head. Sweet malt, spices, nutmeg, pumpkin and berry smell. Complex smell. Tingly thin watery body. Bitter start of pumpkin, nutmeg, spices, roast malt over rip berry sour sweet finish. Not a fan of the finish. The lasting leaf bitter finish is a little offputting.

500mL Lykkbho bottle. Pours a clear brownish orange with a small beige head. Aroma has a lot of cardamom and cinnamon, with some faint malts, not much complexity but it’s nice. Flavour hits with sweet malts and cinnamon upfront, met with dry cardamom and rounded out well with some orange rind. Feels lightish on the palate, and not a whole lot of booze which I guess is good. I always hope that these beers will be kind of bock-like, but it rarely happens and this is no exception. A good beer, but not the kind of stand-out that the Spruce Beer is. Good seasonal brew though.

500ml bottle
6.5% ABV
I tried this beer on February 2, 2012 after purchasing from the Garrison Feature at the Queen’s Quay LCBO outlet in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The beer poured a translucent coppery red colour with a bubbly tan head. The aroma was nutmeg, caramel, sweet malt and weak floral hops. The mouthfeel was medium bodied with medium carbonation. The flavour was sweet malt and spices and a hint of yeastiness.

500 mL bottle from the brewery, served in a snifter. Pours clear reddish caramel with a small tan head. The head fades quickly to a thin cover and leaves almost no lace. The nose has big notes of dark fruit, clove and cinnamon, along with molasses and a touch of alcohol. The flavour is quite sweet up front, with plenty of brown sugar and Christmas spice. Hops enter towards the end, providing a nice balanced finish that lingers. On the palate, it is full in body with a smooth, creamy texture and lively carbonation Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this one; the spices are just right and pair nicely with the malts. Nice for a cool evening in December. 2011-03-06

500 ml bottle. Appearance is a cloudy, unfiltered dark brown. Taste is a strong malty and hops, with a good amount of spice. Body was pretty smooth. I think it was a better winter seasonal than the Winter Weizenbock.

UPDATED: FEB 20, 2012 Feb 2012 update: this is more like it. Like having Xmas in your mouth. Lots of ginger and molasses this year. Great warmth, lovely beer. Poured dark amber with a head that dissipates. Light creamy in the mouth. Liked this beer, but I didn’t find the expected winter spicy flavours. Tasted more like a bitter. Enjoyed it and would buy again.