Telegraph Winter Ale

Brewed by Telegraph Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Santa Barbara, California USA

Serve in Lager glass, Shaker, Tumbler

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75 cL bottle batch 95 from the beer of the month club. Pours clear dark brown with fluffy light brown head. Light body, highly carbonated, and allspice aroma. Taste is light roasted malt, allspice, some cinnamon, some bakers chocolate, some chiles, and herbal hop finish. This is darker than I expected, pretty light tasting, and different, but nothing I will seek out.

not so sure about mexican hot chocolate did not get much spice or chocolate got banana and clove.

Bottle. Great spice and chocolate notes. The chili is mild but provides a touch of heat. The taste has a some good sweetness but finishes without any stickiness. It’s about half stout and half winter warmer. Lots of chocolate malt. Some caramel. Mild roast. Some dark fruity notes. The spice is really the star and lends a mix of cinnamon and chili. Mouthfeel eventually gets creamy and smooth, but it’s initially over-carbonated. Very pleasant beer and has some very good holiday spicing.

Pours a nice Brown with a tan head..spicy aroma of cinnamon, allspice and plenty of dark Belgian notes. Taste is very similar. Alot of spice going on here. I enjoyed this style, but it could be toned down a little overall.

Not my favorite. I wish I would have known about the chiles and spices before I drank it, because the finish really affected my enjoyment. I will try it again next year.

Bottle, shared with Bartzilla. Dark brown color. Trippy spicy sweet aroma. Flavor is cinnamon, clove, toothpaste and bubblegum. A little pepper on the finish, but I was surprised that the chili’s weren’t more prominent. Just not my thing.

75 cl corked bottle from Whole Foods. Pours beautiful red-brown with off-white head (that doesn’t last too long). Aroma boasts spices (ginger, cinnamon, anise, coriander), some chocolaty sweetness and some acidity. Flavor is slightly sweet and acidic (possibly a minor infection). Spiciness in the finish. Not bad, but not great either.

Appearance: medium to dark brown, with clear ruby highlights around the edges; short off-white head vanishing quickly. Aroma: spices (clove, cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, allspice), brown bread, and chocolate. Taste: notes of chocolate, a hint of coffee, strong impression of cinnamon, clove, bit of ginger, and as it warms, some heat. Finish: finishes long and smooth, with the heat of the chiles coming on very subtly. Notes: An interesting beer, but perhaps trying too hard. Mailer that came with it called it a spiced porter, but this was too light in the palate (almost watery). Definitely a spicy beer, but all the spices were almost overpowering, rather than complimentary. For the second glass, I actually mixed it half and half with Vintage 50’s Sordid Past, which made for a pretty good beer. Bottle from the Rare Beer Club.

Corked and caged 750 ml bottle from Holiday Wine Cellar ($6.99). Pours a nice deep dark brown-red with generous three fingers of foamy head. Strong aroma of "holiday" spices (cinnamon, nutmeg) along with weaker aromas of chocolate malt, anise, juniper, wood, and a hint of chili. Flavor is again dominated by the same "holiday" spices found in the nose. The chili taste is weak but there, but the chocolate and malt flavors are noticeably weak. Good carbonation but disappointing finish which is dominated by the spices yet again. This is a good idea -- I certainly enjoyed the Mexican hot chocolate I had when I visited Oaxaca in the winter. There in Mexico the rich chocolate, spice/cinnamon, and chili flavors comes together very well. This beer needs to tone down the spice while increasing the chili and especially the chocolate flavors.

750mL bottle from thome50. Bottle opens with a nice pop, and there is an immediate spice presence emanating from the bottle. Deep mahogany color with a medium sized, barely, off white head. Aroma is mainly cinnamon and all spice. Pretty potent with those two ingredients. There is also a small cocoa and caramel presence. Wow!! That’s a beer filled with all spice and cinnamon. Flavor starts off with a nice dose of cinnamon and finishes with a long lasting, intense, all spice flavor. There is a hint of heat from the chilies towards the finish, but honestly I wouldn’t know it was there if it wasn’t for the fact that it is listed in the description. Don’t get a ton of the malt profile in this, but there is a hint of chocolate, but it is so masked by the spice profile it really doesn’t add much. I guess this would be considered unbalanced due to the extreme presence of the spices, but it is still really enjoyable if you like a good spice presence in your beer.