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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Sample at Bruery Provisions. Pours a reddish-brown color with a medium beige head that recedes steadily. Rings of lacing on the glass. Sweet spices like ginger and allspice in the nose, plus a bit of malt. Medium body with flavors of cinnamon, ginger, bready malt and caramel. The finish is sweetly spiced with a malty aftertaste. Decent overall.

Draft. Rich amber beer with an off-white head. Slight dark fruit, caramel aroma. Berry fruit and caramel flavor with some spice. Medium body. Fruit, caramel, spice, andbready malts linger.

Courtesy TheCheeseMan. Pours a clear, dark, chestnut brown color. A foamy, beige colored head is well retained. Sudsy lacing mostly rejoins the body. The aroma shows a fairly complex and inviting blend of dried caramel, dehydrated figs, chestnuts, nutmeg, and allspice. A hint of vanilla lurks somewhere within, with a glint of smokiness, but no heat, stemming from the chilies. Flavors are basically the same, dry and earthy, with a light caramel and dark fruit sweetness, and slightly bitter, woody wintertime spices. Medium bodied and semi-dry, the palate is perhaps a shade weak and overly active for the style. This is a fairly nice, tasty wintertime brew.

Bottle thanks to footbalm. Pours a dark brown/red color with a large off-white head. A spicy nose; some pepper and allspice. The flavor is nice; sweet and spicy, some light heat from the peppers, caramel and a slight tartness. Nice. The peppers are light but there.

Growler from the brewery last December, and somehow forgot to enter my notes until now. Dark purple-brown. Richly spiced aroma that does indeed have some similarities to mexican chocolate. Caramel and sharply spicy flavor. Finished a bit astringent. Started quite good, but by the end the spices were a bit heavy handed, and there wasn’t much chocolate flavor as advertised. Fun to split with a bunch of people, but I wouldn’t want a whole bottle of this to myself.

750 ml. bottle from Secret Santa. Thanks man! Pours a reddish amber brown pour with a medium off white head, sticky, clings to the glass. Aroma of clove, all spice, orange peel, caramel and toffee malts. Flavor of strong clove. Toffee malts, cinnamon, spice. Certainly the spice plays a big deal in this. Mild chocolate and caramel. Tastes pretty good. Full-bodied, lots of carbonation. I’d say this is a petty solid winter ale.

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.

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.

Dark brown colour. Murky. Rich, chocolate aroma with good fruit and spice as well. Very spicy palate with light chocolate notes.

Sent in a trade from Hayduke with whom it was shared via Facebook chat. This is not a typical Winter Ale. It pours with a gushing light tan head that takes a while to dissipate. the beer is dark brown and opaque. The nose is huge spices followed by more spices. That is the flavor, too. Tons of spice. Then chile peppers show up. They attack the tongue tip with a vengeance. At some point cocoa is tasted that is never big and reminds me of powdered hot chocolate mix. At the end dark fruit, especially raisins, emerges. The finish is pepper, cocoa and raisins. This beer borders on being odd but somehow it all works, but barely.