North Coast Wintertime Ale

Formerly brewed at North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Fort Bragg, California USA

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker, Tumbler

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Smokey, Belgian aroma. Tea colored, two fingers of spongey foam in a tall pilsener glass. Tangy peat, tar & Belgian flavor with grain backside. Lingers on the palate. I have a sneaking suspicion that this would be a nasty hangover beer. Dinging this one in appearance for an exceptionally cheesy clipart label. I seem to be at odds with most of the (august) raters here, but I thought this a courageous beer to market.

Just boring. Flavor is primarily caramel malts, but they’re not particularly noticeable. Little hops, little zip. The least impressive winter ale I’ve run into yet.

Once again I find North Coast to be barely average. I’ve yet to have anything from them that I find to be interesting - most ends up pretty watery. This beer has some weizenbock like traits - a slight lemon zest spiciness primarily - but not much else. Slightly sour, but eventually finishable.

Good, but a little too bland and watered down to make it great. Caramel nose and a bit of a smokey aftertaste, but sub-par balance. North Coast can do better.

Ruby color. Nice rocky head. Caramel malt, spicy nose. A spicy yeasty flavor but it tastes watered down. There just is no finish whatsoever. Diappointing.

Light fruity aroma with some hop and malt presence. Light bodied and slightly bittersweet, like a watered-down, over-hopped hefe. Not bad but not all that good either, I probably wouldn’t get it again.

The aroma’s here, the taste is not. Dark red/caramel body with a frothy, quick white head. Nose is fruity, slightly malty, exuding a hefeweizen-like aroma with dark fruit notes, primarily blackberry and apple. Unfortunately, the enticing aroma does not translate to the flavor, which exhibits a watered-down, dulled fruit flavor with a short, quiet hop finish. My first unsatisfactory experience with a NC Brewing brew.

I don’t love citrusy beer. This beer is not bad, but I just can’t love the style.

Nice pour and presentation. In the nose, there’s some dough, citrus and spice (coriander or nutmeg). Some very mild pine with some citric flavors in an acidic foaming medium to light medium body, fairly bitter. North Coast makes PranQster and Rasputin and this isn’t quite up to par. A mild tangy finish.