Samuel Smiths Winter Welcome Ale

reddish amber color. Smell of hops, prunes, holiday spices(Nutmeg, cinnamon), malt, caramel and nuts. Tastes the same. Its a different beer but still a nice one to have here and there.

This offering from Samuel Smith’s pours a maroon burnt sienna leaving a thick frothy off-white head and a crystal clear body. The aroma is caramel, plum, yeast, fruity, faint hop essence. The taste starts nutty and fruity with slight funky esters with a tart acidic bitterness rounded out by more bready, fruity, plum, fig sweetness. This is a good beer mild but satisfying.

This seasonal is pretty malty. A very nice taste and appearance, but one burning question: seaweed finings? Odd.

550 ml bottle - should easily win the "how many things can they cram onto the label" award.....pours a nice looking clear auburn hue, big tan head that settles fairly quickly to a surface layer. Aroma of floral/earthy English hops paired with a sweet maltiness. Deep down, underneath all that, you get a very faint hint of something darker - spice? Candied fruit? Almost too faint to tell for sure, but certainly there. Very soft in the mouth with low carbonation and some hop bitterness in the finish. Again, there’s the very faint dark fruit (prune?) sweetness in the finish. Tastes like a fairly standard EPA, though the higher alcohol than average creeps up on you as the glass warms and in turn keeps you warm as well. Simple and enjoyable, but my least favourite of the Sam. Smith beers I’ve had. Kudos for the switch to dark glass, though - definitely a step in the right direction.

550cl bottle. Beer pours red-amber, medium body, head diminishes quickly. Tastes hoppy, and not too sugary, which is something I look for in a beer. A recommendation but not a favorite.

Blind tasting. I used to enjoy this beer, but it had been a long time since I’d had it....Very let down. Light amber with big head. Smells like an oktoberfest....just slight notes of maltiness and pils hops. Bland sweet malt taste doesn’t do it for me....Thin.

Let me think back to Christmas 1995. This beer opened up my world to "other" beers. Could beer be better tasting than an ice cold Budweiser. I was befuddled at this thought. But confusion breeds experimentation and so my journey down the yellow (or clear amber) brick road began....

Sampled at Broudy’s Holiday Beerfest, Jacksonville FL 12/2/2006. Clear amber beer with a small head. Flavor is caramel and malt and spicy, herbal and hoppy. Medium body and English hop character with a bit of bitterness. There seems to be a lot of chatter about this one every year, I suppose because Sam Smith been making it for a lot of years. Decent but not my style.