Great Lakes Brewing Winter Ale

750ml bottle from LCBO. fresh snow calls for this beer. a warming aroma of cinnamon and orange. I highly recommend this beer during any canadian blizzard.

courtesy of Andrew. Thanks for bringing this as a gift. Pours copper, beige head. Aroma has a full nose of nice Christmas spices. Ginger is more prominent. Taste is malty, with a good side of the beer on the spicy side. All of them really come together in a nice blend and form a very balanced winter ale. Ginger, cinnamon, cloves. Some light notes of orange peel with a good presence of dark fruits.

On tap at Volo, courtesy of Hogtown Harry, celebrating the birth of my son (thanks for the pint Harry). Wonderful spicy aroma, really reminded me of the Anchor Christmas beer. Dark brown body, medium white head. Lots of malt sweetness and tons of spice in really nice taste. Formidable body to back everything up (a pleasant surprise from these Lager folks), this beer was a bang on version of a solid Winter Warmer. Congrats Great Lakes on your fine achievement, I look forward to having it again next Winter.

RE RATE FOR 2008 BOTTLING nice balanced enjoyably sweet spice-cake beer with wonderful body and balance - totally worth picking up ---- ORIGINAL RATING / 8 4 7 2 9 = 3.0 --- Bar Volo, Draught. I had no idea this was a spiced ale when I drank it, but I truthfully found it a bit in-my-face. Not the spiciness so much as the overall sense of palate fatigue, from the first sip to the fighting finish. Maybe there is an acidity or a hop type that doesn’t agree with me. The quality is there for sure, this just wasn’t for me.

750 ml bottle from the LCBO. pours deep amber with a short lived white head. nice lacings. aromas are spices with honey and pale malt. flavours are spice driven with some malty sweetness and noticable honey addition. very drinkable, almost dangerous at 6.2%. i dont kno why these guys get such a rough rep around here but this is another solid effort buy this brewery.

Great amber colour with spicy aromas. Taste is orange with cinnamon and spices. Great beer for a cold blistery day.

Very nice dark ruby color, nice thick head. Aroma is very much of cinnamon, and spices. Flavor is definetly spicy, but not a hit your over the head spicy. The ginger realls comes out, flavor of ginger bread, and a little twinge of orange on the tail end. Palate was a little thin i thought for a winter warmer though. All in all, a great beer, nice to see Great Lakes venture with their seasonal beers after the great Devil’s pale ale

750 ml bottle - pours a clear dark amber with a small off-white head. Aroma really sweet and malty, some honey and faint mandarin peel. Flavour very nice - again, very sweet, but more complex than the aroma, with the honey, ginger, cinnamon and some dark fruits really coming through. A dry, slightly astringent finish rounds things off. Thick mouthfeel, almost syrupy. Alcohol extremely well-hidden, although it warms as you work your way through the bottle. A lovely beer to sip with a friend on a cold winter evening. Attractive bottle as well. Another winning seasonal from Great Lakes.