Alaskan Winter Ale

Brewed by Alaskan Brewing Co
Style: Old Ale
Juneau, Alaska USA

Bottle. Pours burnt orange with small but silky white head. The aroma is malty with some fruit notes, plant matter, and cake. The flavor is surprisingly good. The spruce tips are obvious, but not overwhelming. A nice, even, fruity tone supports the flavor, with lots of caramel and toast. The finish is slightly woody, which again accents the spruce tones. All in all, I think they pull this off rather well. This beer is underrated in my opinion.

(08.01.06) 12 oz brown bottle from Liquid Solutions. 6.4% ABV. Bottled 1/04. Best by 5/21/06. Sweet malt and ripe plum aromas. Poured clear light amber with small white head. Soft carbonation. Medium bodied ale that starts with light malt sweetness and fruity (ripened kiwi)/light toasted malt flavors. Finished with light malt fade. No discernable hop presence. Smooth and well-balanced. A very good drinkable ale.

12oz bottle. A041007. Filtered and clear. Bright depp golden reddish hue. Larger bubbles dissipated almost immediately. Bready doughy nose. Little caramel, little pine. Medium bodied and lovely. Initially caramel sweet, then a bitter hop and alcohol note. Followed by the smells and tastes of pine. Smells like Christmas at my parents growing up. Quaffable, but needs to be sipped and enjoyed. A trace amount of an alcohol burn, or is that the spruce? Either way, its damn good! It has a sticky lingering caramel finish. Taste the piney and sweet malts in the belch. Excuse me! I drank (am still drinking) this brew at almost room temperature. Which I have absolutely no problem with. But a barley wine? Little thin. I guess that is the general concensus. Though not to detract from how much I liked this brew.

In my opinion, this is one of the most unique beers that the Alaskan Brewing Company produces. There are hints of spruce needles in the beer, which adds a very subtle flavor to it.

12oz bottle: Pours to a mostly clear, very slightly hazy, medium amber colored body with a small, light tan colored head that quickly fades to nothing. The aroma is sweet, showing caramel, sweet medium malts, candy, light allspice, and a mild spruce/pine scent. The taste is sweet, almost seems under-attenuated to me it’s so sweet, with some earthy malts, bitter spruce, gets just a hint of grassyness to it but it quickly turns quite bitter and shows more tree sap than grass, caramelized sugar, finishes with some bitter pine sap. Light-medium bodied, medium carbonated. I’m not really sure why this one is classified as a barley wine, it’s really just an amber ale that happens to be spiced with spruce tips. So it goes.

12 oz bottle into a Snifter glass. Pours a rich and hazy almost see through copper amber color with a very thin head that dissappears quickly. The aroma has a candied sugar malt sense while also bring an Earthy sense with the spruce. The flavor has a very sweet and candy like malt in the beginning, while swiftly moving into a tiny bitter hop note covered in spruce. A hint of yeast is tossed in there, ending with a fizzle on the back top of the throat. Not much taste lingers. Fairly thin bodied, not really complex. The spruce comes out a lot more as it warms, so I recommend letting it sit a bit before drinking.

Aroma of candy malt with evergreen - I can’t tell spruce from cedar. It’s not pine. Actually I probably could tell spruce from cedar - this is not cedar. So it’s spruce. Q.E.D. Clear copper color with a light tan head that runs away fast. A smooth sweetish malt start, that morphs into a candy impact, finishing with a bitter evergreen that is not hop. Not all that bitter, but the mouth tingles. Makes me think a bit of turpentine. Moderate mouthfeel. Not a super dry finish, but it almost seems that way. Wish there was a spruce in the neighborhood to check against. Not the standard bitter loved by Western Hopheads. Good for the season.

12 oz bottle. Pours to a light amber to copper color, with a soapy white head that fades, and a moderate to soft carbonation. The nose on this beer is very pleasing with aromas of caramel, and spicy hints of pine and spruce. The palate is soft with good flavors of toffee, biscuit, and caramel. This beer finishes with more good malt flavors up front, then ends with a piney/spruce finish that slightly lingers. The spruce tips in this beer makes for a very interesting and flavoful beer. You really get pleasing spruce flavor in the nose and finish. This is a nice, easy drinking, winter ale. A nice after work or dinner brew, and a good beer to sip and savor with a good book or a movie.