Great Lakes Brewing Winter Ale

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing (Ontario)
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Etobicoke, Canada

Bottle courtesy of matt7215. Pours mahogany with a white head. Smells of dark fruit, citrus, light spice. Tastes sweet and spicy with some peppery hints on the finish.

My Bottom Line:
Omnipresent cinnamon and orange peel control this very spicy Christmas brew, somewhat alleviated though by soft frothiness and hoppy bitterness.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam tops the lightly hazy red.
-This is still quite drinkable even though the spices are a tad overused.
-The body is pretty lean; a few more dextrins might have helped ground these spices.<br< -This might be a nice novelty item for neophytes, but I don’t see it reaching too many craft beer lovers’ hearts anytime soon. But that’s just me.

Bottle.

A dark brown ale with reddish hues and a light moka head. Aroma of caramel, roasted nuts and aniseed. In mouth, sweetish coffee, light metallic hops, licorice. Overall, rather light and watery body. Not bad but would gain at being a bit richer in body. Bottle from LCBO, gift pack with glass.

Bottle (650ml). at Decemberfest 2006 - R’s bottle. Poured clear ruby with a small tan head. Pleasing, fresh aroma of generic grainy roast malt, caramel, mild peppery sweet spice. The taste was much the same, only the sweet spice didn’t emerge as much as I’d hoped - mostly just light roast malt. The mouthfeel was entirely "ehh" - not overly watery, but unimpressive body, a little sweeter than I’d like - it could use either more alcohol or more yeast/spice ... but an excellent step in the right direction for this brewery. ** update - had this again on draught at Volo and it came through with more body and bolder spice character - I’m re-rating and boosting its score (was 6+3+6+3+11=2.9)

A full mouthfeel malty concoction, spices and citrus are quite the secondary. Fresh, I was the first on Ralph’s tap and nice drinking,

Bottle.
Gold amber with light brown, medium creamy top.
Aroma: creamy, milky with berry and fruits. Sweet.
Spiced with ginger, vanilla extract and nutmeg. Medium bodied. Decent attempt on holiday theme. Its good local breweries expanding their repertoire.

2009-11-12. No notes taken. Found this very drinkable, the spice was well balanced. Ginger is very interesting as it feels like there is a fair bit of it in there, but it blends intriguingly with the other spices in a way that takes you a minute to figure out what it is. Alcohol is basically invisible. Very nice. Draft and Cask at the brewery.

December 2007. Ruby brown body with a small off white / beige head. Sweet spicy flavour with a nutmeg (?) starter, with a lingering cinnamon finish. Sweet underlying malt character. Softly spicy aroma with a sweet spicy profile reminiscent of pumpkin pie or ginger bread. Spice builds on the tongue as you quaff, and lingers long into the aftertaste. Palate is on the fuller side of average. (3+) Very nice, flavourful yet quite drinkable as well. 7/3/7/3+/15 - 3.5 Draft at Cest What.

December 2006. Ruddy brown with a small tan head and decent lacing (3+). Sweet malt aroma with muted spice. ( a bit like a less pungent Anchor OSA. I thought nutmeg but based on the description I guess it was cinnamon and ginger) Similar flavour, moderately sweet malt has very lightly earthy notes and moderate spice character. Average palate. Pretty solid quaff, but could use a bit more depth to take it to the next level. 7/4/7/3/14 - 3.5 Draft at Cest What.

Bottle shared with the gang at Decemberfest 2006 -- courtesy of Ralph. Pours a clear dark amber-orange with a small diminishing white head. Aroma of sweet caramel malt, fruit and Xmas spices. Sweet flavour of malt and spices. Medium bodied. Pretty good but a little too sweet for me.