Anderson Valley Winter Solstice

Brewed by Anderson Valley Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Boonville, California USA

Aroma is unique. I like...maybe peach or apricot, cinnamon definitely, ginger, vanilla, pretty cool. Large puffy head. Soapy texture. Very interesting taste. Vanilla and ginger are the main ingredients. I’m not sure if I’ve ever tasted a beer with this flavor before. It’s a bit cloying, but improves as you drink more. Unique for sure. Good, well maybe, as of now I can’t quite come to that conclusion. But the interesting factor makes it score higher than your average beer.

Pours a near-opaque mahogany with a tan, fizz-away head. Aroma finds juicy citrus before stale, caramel-candied malt. I’m surprised by the spiciness I encounter on the first sip, made even more shocking by the fizzy palate. Holiday spice evens out to a familiar flavor of <a href=http://www.groovycandies.com/V2ProdDetail1.as Vanilla Royals ( my mom used to love those). Once I taste the vanilla, I can detect it in the aroma. Alcohol appears late and has a drying effect. Interesting and festive, but vanilla isn’t tops on my list of beer additives.

<font size=-4>Purchased at <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Liquors, Chicago, IL 60638<font size=-1>

Draft. Dark brown thick color. The aroma had a note of something very odd, like fennel or licorice or something (strange herb scent) -- got me off on the wrong foot from the start. Flavor is a fairly complex range from sweet vanilla-caramel to a slight bite, although the palate left me unimpressed (watery). Overall, not bad.

Once again I have been smitten with t he spiced herb brew. Beautiful texture and hey how about that pour. Look how am I supposed to put this simply. This brewery makes kick ass beers and this is definitly no exception. A little vanilla a little holiday spice and hell Christmas aint so bad afterall.

It pains me to rate anything from AVBC so low, particularly since this is my wife’s favorite beer. But, there’s no accounting for taste. Aroma of vanilla. Beautiful, bright amber. Decent head. Palate is wonderful. But it is just so full of vanilla that nothing else comes through. For some, ’twill be a great beer -- it has lots of good qualites ... but for others, the vanilla will kill it every time.

This is a dark copper beer with a malty smell. It’s medium bodied and overall pretty average in taste with a yeasty after taste.

I think I got the last bottle of this left at any of the stores in my expanded region. And so far my Andersons (namesake beer) have been less than worthy, but this one actually smells pretty nice, spicy, gingery, molasses, baking sugar-spice cookies, and its’s one of those nice wintery murky red brown jobbies with a sparse coating of bubbles descended from a once small head on top. It’s got a different, appropriately wintry (unlike many seasonals I’ve had this year) flavor - spice cookies, berry decorations, potpurri, maybe there’s even a hint of eggnog-vanilla hiding in there. It’s not perfect, the malt and alcohol taste a little funny mixed in there, somewhat off balance. But it certainly serves the purpose of being a little warming, plenty festive, and having a good dollop of flavor. Modestly bitter, earthy, woody finish. 2005 vintage.

2004 bottle. Cloudy amber in appearance. Slight vanilla and fruit (plum) aroma. At the begining big in caramel, with fruit in the middle, & finishing off with light fruit & vanilla. being aged for two years it has lost alot of its spicyness.