I'm rating this beer against the BJCP style guidelines for 21B, Christmas/Winter Specialty Spiced Beer.The neck label reads "An auburn-colored brew with a smooth, robust taste full of rich aromas, hints of vanilla and flavorful hops."
The front label says "Winter ale aged on bourbon oak casks and whole Madagascar vanilla beans".
You would expect a beer like this to have huge aromatics, but even after allowing it to warm up for quite a while, I could barely detect any aroma at all. If there is any detectable aroma, it would be vanilla, but only very slightly.
Next, the appearance of this beer is excellent. A deep amber color and extremely clear. Looked great in the glass. The head was well-formed, but didn't last very long before dissipating.
As for the flavor of this beer, it's VANILLA, VANILLA, VANILLA. If you label a beer as bourbon cask ale, then for pity's sake, have some of the bourbon or oak flavor come through. Unfortunately, this beer has way too much vanilla in it. The vanilla overshadows all the other flavors, if they are there, including the malt, hops, bourbon, and oak. I could not differentiate any other flavors than vanilla. Vanilla. Vanilla.
This is a medium body beer with moderately high carbonation and a good, creamy mouthfeel.
Overall, I do like this beer, but it does have some shortcomings. It has to be a dessert or standalone brew. By dessert I mean as a dessert in and of itself. I can't imagine any food, including desserts, that this would actually pair well with.
Here is my scoring:
| Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Mouthfeel | Overall Impression |
| 3/12 | 3/3 | 10/20 | 5/5 | 7/10 |
Total: 28/50 - Falls in the Good category (21-29 points) for BJCP
No comments:
Post a Comment