Wild Goose Snow Goose Winter Ale

Brewed by Wild Goose LLC (Flying Dog)
Style: English Strong Ale
Frederick, Maryland USA

Serve in English pint, Snifter

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A Winter beer I look forward to, top notch, robust and rich. A real belly warmer, great malt and hop spicyness that makes me want more each year.

Much better than I expected, for some reason. Powerful, oaky, roasty, and malty, with some floral hops on top. Mahogany colored, with sparse head. This is excellent in a brandy snifter. (Why is it that snifters are awful for brandy but good for strong ale?)

Pours beautifully leaving a full, tan colored head atop a lovely copper body. Aroma is complex featuring malty sweet smells and fresh aromatic hops. The flavor is rich and warming. A very pleasing winter warmer with which to curl up next to the fire. Carbonation is natural and not overbearing. The flavor just keeps coming sip after sip as the ale warms. Alcoholic kick is apparent after just a few sips. Very nicely done

This is more in tune with a Scottish Ale rather than a Strong Ale. Nice deep amber hue, little head, sweet malty flavors and quite pleasing. A very good beer that I will be revisiting over and over during the cooler months.

One of my favorite winter ales. This will really warm you up on a cold night.

a delicious winter ale. The flavor is nice, the body full, the aroma good.

Awesome. I loved every bit of this beer from the sweet malt taste to the somewhat strong and spicy, but not overpowering hop finish. Great winter beer

UPDATED: MAR 13, 2005 Ooooooh, what a winter ale. Has a good kick, smells lovely, and pours beautifully. Very aggressive flavor, heady hops with great malt balance.

So much better than the Summit Winter beer and that thing I had at Dunelands in Indiana recently, that I feel a rave coming on. Stand back. Pours a rich, deep red wine color, lovely warm and earthy, with a heavily malty aroma that carries the imagination to some warm snug in a corner pub with fine old woodwork and good craic. The flavor is full, robust, hearty - the fire in the pub cackles merrily and a complex series of flaors rise in delighted conversation with each other: whiskey barrel, fruit (cherry), fresh tobacco leaves, vanilla, a glass of yeast set to start in warm water in the winter window. A great beer amidst the plainer fare I"d been sampling, and a great occassion: drank as part of a broomball party and Christmas tree burning bonfire on my new homestead.

UPDATED: NOV 21, 2006 Snow Goose pours to a deep brown color with a nice, creamy tan head, and a soft carbonation. This beer has some really nice, fragrant hop aromas. Piney, citric hop aromas marry with aromas of sweet malt, toast, and caramel. The palate is a very firm malt backbone. Rich flavors of sweet malt, caramel, toast, and toffee coat the tongue. Really a muscular malt body, not too hefty, but satisfying. Snow Goose finishes malty up front then dries with a long, citric bitter hop bite that lingers, and a slightly warming burn. Really a very well done winter ale. Really good balance of malt and hop flavors and aromas. I don’t think it will ever return to the ringwood glory days, but this Snow Goose is the best I have had in the past two or three years. The big hop character is welcome in my opinion. I would match this beer with hearty fare. This would work well with roasted turkey or pork. I would even pair this with a nice grilled steak and baked potato.