Alaskan Winter Ale

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

I found a six pack of this at a liquor store near my apartment - I’m guessing it’s last year’s batch, as this place had a limited craft beer selection, and did not exactly look like a place where many people shopped for decent beer (the vast selection of malt liquor tipped me off) - anyway, it’s been quite a while since I’ve had a beer with spruce in it, and so I have had time to forget that the aroma it imparts to beer reminds me very much of Swedish Fish - one whiff of this beer reminds me of this - thankfully, there are some notes of caramelized sugar and heavily toasted grains behind this to kind of wash this out the more I smell the beer - thankfully, the flavor has none of this character - there is nothing very old ale like about this beer - a very toasty character, some light syrupy qualities, pine needles - the spruce tips meld with the sweetness to created a pine sap kind of quality to the beer - fairly clean and quite drinkable, but kind of an unremarkable winter ale - now I have five more bottles to get through - thanks crappy corner liquor store!

12oz bottle from Lukas Liquor. Pours clear copper with white head. Aroma is toaste malt, caramel, and some spruce. Flavor is toasted malt, toffee, little hops, a bit of spruce. Almost has a lager type quality to it. Another wierd flavor in there I really cannot quite define. Not that good of an old ale.

Bottle. Pours mildly hazy amber, with a thin off-white head, passable to poor lacing. Nose is mild spice, malt, caramel, cake, cinnamon, ginger, cold cream? Palate is dry for an old ale, which I rather enjoyed. Moderate fruit and light spice along with caramelly maltiness throughout. Not a beer I would immediately think of as an Old Ale, but a pleasant enough Winter Seasonal I suppose.

Bottle 35,5 cl. Clear amber golden with a small, rough off-white head. Lightly sweet malt and caramel in the nose. Medium body, lightly sweet caramel with a weird candy-like tang. Very discreet bitterness. 100709

12 fl oz bottle. Pours clear and golden orange with a small white head. Aroma is roasted malty with a light hops note. Subdued sweet note in the flavour. Mild spiced and hoppy flavoured. Malty and subdued bitter finish.

Bottled. An amber beer with an off-white head. The aroma has notes of malt and caramel as well as light notes of hops. The flavor is sweet with notes of caramel, malt, and a bit of hops, leading to a bitter finish. Quite drinkable, but nothing exciting.

Clear amber-tinged orange with a modest, wet, thin head. Mediocre retention and barely any lacing. Very English aroma with lots of toffee and cookie maltiness and a Christmasy spiciness. I don’t get any spruce though. The flavor has a sweet, graham crackery, toffee maltiness that’s quickly tempered by earthy hops and, at last, a distinct but light spruce character. Nice balance here in a style that tends to be rather sweet. Finish is pleasantly dry. Nice mouthfeel and uncommon drinkability.

Freshly squeezed right out of the trees in my back yard. Where’s the aroma? It’s hiding behind the spruce flavour that made me chew to ensure it WAS beer and that i hadnt passed out in my yard. If you dont read the label closely, you are in for a suprise! Weird beer with a multitude of spices and probally hops...too sweet for what i wanted - how do you rate this?...i dunno, I’d try it again to give it another chance.