HOLIDAY ALE

Holiday Ale, a Winter Warmer by New Belgium Brewing.

12 ounce can served in pint glass • 7.5% abv. • ***½

The pour is a ruby red body with an ivory head.

The main flavors are tree bark, cinnamon, other spices, tart cranberry, and dark fruits. 

Medium mouthfeel. It has a sweet start then dries on the finish with bark and spices.

I like it, but other than the cranberry the flavors make it feel too similar to Jubelale. And, if I'm going to have a Jubelale, then I want to have a Jubelale.

AUTUMNAL ROUNDUP

I went and gathered a few beers for late-autumn enjoyment as I wait to crack into my beer Advent calendar.

It's a mixture of old favorites and a few new beers to try.

Silver City Old Scrooge Ale.

Ommegang Three Philosophers Quardrupel.

Boulevard The Sixth Glass Quadrupel.

Reuben's Brews Holiday Gose.

Deschutes Jubelale.

Oskar Blues Old Chub Scotch Ale.

Breckenridge Nitro Chocolate Orange Stout.

Crux In the Pocket Barrel-Aged Rustic Saison.

7 Seas Boobytraps Cascadia Dark Ale (not pictured).

Iron Horse Cand Hannon IPA (not pictured).

I've already enjoyed a few of these beers the past couple of days and it's helping to keep the darkness of the seasonal changes at bay a bit.

POST DEFIANCE WINTER READING

Tonight was the Post Defiance Winter Reading, one of my favorite events of the Christmas holiday season.

This time, it was 35 people—friends, neighbors, strangers—with some connection to Tacoma's culture, art, and literary website Post Defiance, gathering in a private home filled with Christmas decorations and reading winter and/or holiday themed stories, poems, and essays to one another.

Three people read original work. The rest of the evening readings included (but were not limited to) the following works: "The Little Match Girl" by Hans Christian Andersen; "February" by Margaret Atwood; an excerpt from The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey; an excerpt from Sightlines: A Conversation with the Natural World by Kathleen Jamie; an excerpt from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame; "Storm Home" by Garrison Keillor; "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service; and much more.

I read "Tonrat the Watchmaker Bestows His Wishes on Her/Me" by dg nanouk okpik from her poetry collection Corpse Whale and children's picture book Polar Bear Night written by Lauren Thompson and illustrated by Stephen Savage.

In addition to time for readings, we ate and drank and conversed.

It was a magical night.

SALT AND SPICES

Beneath the thermometer is a salt crust. Beneath the salt crust is a prime rib. Awaiting to accompany the prime rib is a bottle of Anchor Brewing Company's 2013 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Ale.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (Our Special Ale), a Winter Ale by Anchor Brewing Company.

12 ounce taster bottle served in a shaker glass.

5.5% alcohol by volume.

The pour is an intensely deep ruby red with a half-finger of tan head.

The nose is primarily spices: cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon.

The tongue is scrumptious wood bark, lightly roasted malts, and light spices. Dark fruits undergird the forward flavors.

The finish is woodsy and then lingering spices. The latter increase for some time.

As it warms, light chocolate and cocoa notes sneak into the background.

This is an excellent winter ale.

BARREL AGED BRRRBON

Barrel-Aged Brrrbon, a Winter Warmer by Widmer Brothers Brewing Company (as part of their Brothers' Reserve series)

22 ounce (boxed) bomber bottle, served in a snifter. 9.4% alcohol by volume.

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The pour is a clear caramel orange with a thin white head that quickly dissipates. There is only the faintest hint of carbonation.

The first aroma is vanilla extract. The second aroma is bourbon. There is also an undercurrent of creamy butter.

The flavor is all bourbon. As I noted: "The bourbon of the barrels it was aged in is VERY strong on the first quaff. I will now resort to sips, which is probably where I should have started."

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The flavor is mostly bourbon. I was hoping for more than that. The label claims that "soft oak flavors transition into a sweet yet slightly dry finish," none of which I seemed to encounter beneath the barrage of bourbon.

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The finish that lingers (for a long time) is somewhere between bourbon and orange bitters. This is not the initial finish, but the finish that stays and informs for quite some time.

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"Did you know that you just drank a beer that tasted more like hard alcohol and very little like beer? Yes, it tasted something like this. Yes, like this... Like this... This... Not exactly, but, hey, it's a memory, even if a recent one. What did you expect?"

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As it warmed, the bourbon flavor became even more pronounced and too strong for me. I had to pour some of what remained in the snifter's bowl back into the bottle for safekeeping. Next time, I will remember three things: (1) drink it right out of the refrigerator to keep some of the flavor at bay; (2) serve it in the mini-snifter; and (3) sip it.

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This beer is truly one note. Bourbon. And I don't drink enough bourbon to know if this even echoes a good bourbon or not.

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As far as I remember, Barrel-Aged Brrrbon tastes nothing like the Brrr Winter Warmer, upon which it is based. I liked Brrr quite a bit, if memory serves me.

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One interesting note is that this is the third beer in the Brothers' Reserve series. I have also had the first beer, Cherry Oak Doppelbock, which was great. On the side of the box, they mark which of the Widmer brothers, Kurt or Rob, is recommending this beer. Brrrbon is one of Rob's creations, while the Cherry Oak Doppelbock was one of Kurt's. I seem to side with Kurt, as far as (limited) taste goes.

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This bottle cost me $12.99, which I was willing to pay, since I tend to like barrel-aged beers and had a good experience with the Doppelbock. At $9.45 per pint, however, I have to recommend that you spend your money on something else. You'll thank me later.

WINTER WARMER

Winter Warmer, a Winter Warmer Ale by Powerhouse Restaurant & Brewery.

On tap, served in a 16 ounce shaker glass. 7.2% alcohol by volume.

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It seems that a lot of winter things are appearing earlier each year, creeping through autumn, ever closer to summer. Christmas cannot wait until Thanksgiving any longer, appearing throughout our culture immediately after Halloween. Likewise, many winter warmer ales are released in early or middle fall, rather than waiting for their namesake season.

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With that being said, the Powerhouse makes an interesting variation on a winter warmer.

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The beer board reads "SERIOUSLY BITTERED WITH COPIOUS SAAZ HOPPING." It is only one of two beer board listings in all capital letters. (The other is the Kölsch.)

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The glass arrives at the table with a hazy yellow body with a thin white head.

The nose is of butterscotch candies, shortbread cookies, and lemony citrus.

The tongue includes those flavors, although a strong varnish-like alcohol bite is what is first encountered, accompanied by a bitter hoppiness. Then the other flavors appear, followed by a background of broth and nettle leaves.

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There is almost too much alcohol and bitterness on the front. The more I think about what I just tasted and the more it settles onto my tongue, the better it becomes. Is this "instant nostalgia"? The flavor is so intense and the ale doesn't quite fit my stereotype of a winter warmer (more hops than malts, lacking some of the spiciness I have come to expect), yet it's higher alcohol content, the initial bitterness tempered by the smoother flavors on the finish, and its overall balance as it lingers really make it enjoyable.

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Recommended.

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The wife, the child, and TWT walked in the snow to our neighborhood brewpub for dinner and ale. It was worth the walk. The Overload Pizza and the Winter Warmer helped to keep the cold and snow at bay, as did the full beard!