By no means a complete review, I had this beer recently at Todd English P.U.B. and it was unlike anything I have had before.This was a very smooth and creamy beer. Very little carbonation, similar texture to a Guinness, however it is clearly not as dark of a beer. The above image looks a little redder than what I had (I had it on tap) but it was equally opaque. Apart from the incredibly smooth texture, the taste is another standout feature of this ale. This beer has a strong vanilla taste, similar to a cream soda. It is not overtly sweet, it is equally balanced between the vanilla taste and the light carmel malts. Between the texture and taste, there is no other way to describe this other than a well balanced, smooth, creamy ale. Despite the mixed reviews on BeerAdvocate, (here) I definitely recommend trying this out and I will be looking for a retailer around town that sells it!

Type: Pale Ale

ALC/VOL: 6.1%

Color: Golden yellow, slight orange tint

Smell: Smells citrusy, orange/lemon type of citrus. Little bit of a wheat tone as well.

Feel: smooth, medium carbonation

Taste:  Little bit of an apple juice taste, some honey overtones. Other than that, there’s not much. In my mind, Sierra Nevada makes the standard pale ale. In comparison to that, this beer lacks in hoppy bite and doesn’t have much of a flavor. It’s very simple, seems like it’s related to the big 3 American beers. This definately has more taste and hops than those beers, but it’s still a very simple taste.

Overall: Meh. I’m not exactly sure what to say. It’s not bad, not great though. Since receiving these beers, I’ve noticed that the Ho Foods (Whole Foods) near me sells beers from this brewery but compared to the rest of their selection, I can’t say that this would be on the top of my list.

ALC/VOL: 7.2%

Color: Amber/brown with reddish hue

Smell: This beer smells very fruity, primarily grapefruit citrus with apple and lightly spiced with cinnamon. Maple syrup makes up the sweet sugary smell.

Feel: This feels very smooth and crisp. Not overly carbonated or bubbly.

Taste: Primarily a well balanced brown ale. Not overly spiced and seasoned like most winter beers. If it weren’t named Winter Warmer, it could very easily be a year round brew similar to Fat Tire or Moose Drool. The bitterness is moderate with a strong malty flavor. It tastes almost like a cinnamon apple pie. The grapefruit aroma is also present in the overtones of this beer. The aftertaste has a short hoppy bite with strong taste of alcohol finishing it off. Overall: A very tasty beer from a brewery over 150 years old, that I’ve never heard of. After tasting this, I’m looking forward to also trying out their IPA that I also received. As mentioned earlier, this is more of an every day beer as opposed to a strict winter ale. Definitely worth drinking in my opinion.

For Christmas, the wife and I received a beer of the month subscription from our BFF, Emily.

We received our first shipment this week. 12 beers, 4 different types from 2 different breweries. The club is meant to introduce people to beer from small breweries in the country that only distribute locally. Not surprisingly, I’ve never heard of either brewery I received this month. 

Mendocino Brewery is based in California and has been brewing beer since the 80’s. The extent of their success is mostly winning a few awards at California state fairs.

Second, Stegmaier Brewery is based in Pennsylvania. This company was founded in the mid 1800s by a German immigrant. Needless to say, I’m a bit more excited to try this brewer’s beer. 

I’ve never written a beer review before. I’m going to start by trying to review all of the beers I receive from my 3 month subscription. This should be interesting…