Big Sky Powder Hound Winter Ale

Brewed by Big Sky Brewing Company
Style: English Strong Ale
Missoula, Montana USA

Thank to Degarth. Pours a dark amber almost brown. Bigtime crystal malt in this one, very sweet caramel and brown sugar come through, followed big by citrusy hops, not bad, but also not very christmas like, good beer just not really my style, too hoppy.

12oz pkgd 299 ’05-A hazy dark amber body with an off white head that dissipates quickly. Aroma of sweet malt. Taste of malt, honey, and caramel. Not a bad beer.

12oz bottle. Filtered and clear. Deep garnet almost brown. Webbing white head. Sweet malt nose. Hints of sweet wheat and toffee. Medium bodied and lively. Sugary, bready sweet, but with a great smack of hops. Great balance. Sweet rich malts and a bitter citrus hop finish. Bready malts and spicy hops. Nice!

Bottled. Pours a clear bright coppery amber with a creamy off-white head that produces walls of lace. Sweet aromas of toffee and fruit moderated by grassy hops. The body is medium, mild carbonation. The taste is sweet with toffee, fruit, nuts, vanilla and some spice on the relatively quick finish. A bit of hop-bitter aftertaste.

Bottle courtesy of IndianaRed. Dark mahogany in color, with almost no head whatsoever. Aroma has plenty of roasted grain and nuttiness, caramel/toffee and somewhat oxidized hops. Sort of English BW in a way. Flavor much the same. Plenty of caramel, toffee. Faint roasted grain, spice and plum. Rather dull through the middle and finish. Too thin on the palate. Reading my review this sounds like a decent beer, just something doesn’t clik with it.

(12 oz bottles: Liquid Solutions in Tigard, OR and BevMo in La Jolla, CA) First up, the bottle from the ’04-’05 winter season, so this is aged 18 months. This nicely crafted and well-balanced winter beer prominently features a moderately strong, dark-roasted malt that is caramely and moderately sweet. There’s a fair amount of earthiness, dark fruits and molasses in this beer as well. Gentle hops has a modest contribution, but this is malty beer through and through. Rich, sweet, earthy malts dominate the nose as well, with hops having no impact. Opening the ’05-’06 now, this isn’t nearly as good; it’s less rich, less malty, less earthy, but more hoppy and bitter, so it may be more balanced, but it’s certainly not as delicious without the intense, rich, dark malts . Both beers are medium-full bodied with ample carbonation, but the aged one has a wonderfully round and luxurious mouthfeel. Dark, ruddy amber color is fairly cloudy, and the off-white head rises to just under half an inch before settling to a filmy layer with a wide ring around the edge. Patchy lacing is modest but persistent. Well, I have two more bottles of the recent release, so I think I’ll bury those in my beer cellar and find them next year. Hopefully they’ll age as well as their predecessor. Rating numbers are for the aged version, obviously.

(12oz bottle) Clear copper body with medium beige head. Aroma is medium sweet, caramel/toffee, some butterscotch, light cherry. Taste is moderately sweet, toffee, some caramel, some chocolate, roast, earthy, light cherry. Medium body, light stickiness.

Cloudy garnet with a tain oily broken head. Nose is brown sugar, plums, and alcohol. Flavour features some piney hops and dark fruits. Mouth is watery. Uninventive and reminicent of something from the shiner breweries.