Barrel House Belgian Winter Ale

Brewed by Barrel House Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Cincinnati, Ohio USA

Draft: Pours dark brown with red hue and mediumalmond head. All I can say is I’m convinced this is chocolate cake with raspberry glaze. You get chocolate and roasted malts but then this tart raspberry fruitiness hits you and your like "where the hell did that come from" but it just taste awesome. That’s it chocolate and raspberries mixed a match made in heaven.

Thanks to beastiefan2k for sharing this. Dark brown beer, thin white head. Arom ais quite spicy, cinnamon, coriander. Toasted bread, cherry, peppery alcohol, soft raisiny malts and a bit of tartness. The flavour is quite tart as well with a bit of earthy malts, chewy sweetness and a light leathery character over the sweet plum/prune. This may be infected, but it makes it pretty interesting.

Thanks to beastiefan2k for sharing - pours a cloudy reddish brown, with an impressive, foamy lace - quite a tart aroma, with earthy/musty/yeasty qualities, and some brown sugar and bready malt in the background - the flavor is tart, nearly sour, and almost bretty at first, complimented well by notes of overripe apples - well-spiced, with nutmeg being most prominent - some sweetness develops, but mostly it stays tart and nearly tannic throughout - not sure it it’s supposed to taste like this, but I like it this way.

Sampled on 2/3/07 courtesy of TheBeerCellar2: Pours a transparent copper mahogany with a thin ring of tan head. Aroma has some complex fruity oakiness with sweet bready biscuity malts. Body starts fairly full and earthy caramely sweet with nice light tart fruity balance and oaky cherry complexity. Good authenticity and very enjoyable.

Hazy amber/brown pour results in a thin, very creamy off white head. The bubble formation above the body is interesting: it looks like a sail that has fallen from atop a catamaran, quite a delight to look at. Aroma is at first graham cracker and rasperry creme. Throughout warming, cracked pepper and yeast shroud dense layers of sweet and tart malts. The flavor is an incohesive blend of spices. Caraway, cardamom, vanilla bean, more dark fruit and alcohol that is all too apparent pound against each other in my mouth. The resulting mouthfeel is more pleasurable than I would have expected, with a pleasing dryness and sting. Finishes peppery, with much hurrah from the caramel malt, long and warming. A charismatic but wandering example of a dubbel.

Pours a cloudy dark brown with a decent tannish/yellow head. Not much aroma, maybe a little coffee and chcolate. Rich creamy sweet mocka flavor, some mild bitterness. Tastes like a really good home brew. Overall pretty good.

Poured a hazy brown color with a hint of ruby and a small beige head. The aroma was fruity with some light tart cherry, cherry licorice, and sweet malt underneath. The flavor was sweet and fruity with more tart cherries. Had that cherry medicine taste but with out the medicine component.

Enjoyed with Rob after our "Salvation" tasting on 1/30/2007... Barrel House Belgian Winter Ale has a very unique aroma and I couldn’t place until just now. It is totally sweet cottage cheese with brown sugar on top! If you’ve never tried cottage cheese with brown sugar on it, TRY IT sometime. I think you’ll be quite pleased with it. Anyway, back the the tasting notes... This beer is very dark brown in color and pretty murky. The tan head/crown lasted just about from start to finish. The flavor seemed to be very sweet and a lot like the sugary cottage cheese at first, but as it warmed and I got further through the glass, more of the dark fruit and spice characteristics were revealed. It finished dry which helped to balance the high level of sweetness in the flavor. The mouthfeel was medium-full and was very smooth and creamy. Overall this beer was good and grew on my as I sipped it. However, I think that the Barrel House brews are probably at their best fresh and generally don’t age wel over time... 22 oz bottle (8.25% ABV) from Jungle Jim’s.