Big Sky Powder Hound Winter Ale

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

Bottle. Light brown beer with zippo head. Aroma of sweet malt and jelly toast. Really. Stawberry jam I think. Taste is sweet and mouthfeel is average. Does not taste very strong. Fruitiness, including strawberries, is present and no hop flavors detected. While I am not a hophead, there needs to be more in this beer. Not so much for flavor, just needs a little more balancing bitterness. Like I’ve said before, this brewery seems to make lighter bodied beers than is normal for each style.

Bottle pours brownish amber, slightly hazy, large frothy tannish colored head, very sticky lacing, with light carbonation.   Malty aroma, slightly sweet and biscuity.   Soft hop bitterness, amidst a grainy maltiness.   Mild overripened fruit flavor as well.   Nice body, but mediocre mouthfeel.   Finishes with a slightly syrupy sweet cloying feeling, if that makes sense.   A bit heavier than yer normal English Pale Ale, but not bad.

This isn’t a terrible interpretation of an English pale ale, though not "authentic" either. It pours dark red-brown with a decent lacing head, and the palate reflects the bottle carbonation versus the more flat profile of a cask pale ale. The aroma is moderately fruity, particularly strawberry, and some alcohol, amid a caramel-malt base. The flavor is somewhat different, being more murky with a carboard, alcohol, toasted malt fusion that doesn’t sit particularly well. I had this side-by-side with the Mendocino Winter Ale (2004-05) and it just goes to show how different of beers you can find uner the "winter ale" category.

Pours an amber red color with a medium sized off white head, low carbonation. Sweet bready, malty aroma with a touch of spices. Sweet malt with a nice bite in the finish of hops and spice, creamy and smooth body rounds this out quite nicely.

Pours almost a dark red. little spicy, yet very smooth. Proper for cold nights. A bit active after taste but nothing to scorn about. Big sky did it agian.

nice sweet malty aroma, kind of spicy, pours dark red with thick foamy head, exceptionally smooth and creamy taste, very well balanced, rich and tasty, sweet and spicy, second best winter brew I’ve had this season. Winterbraun was a little better.

Pours a dark red with a tall off-white head. Citrus hops with some sweet undertoned malt, like melted caramel. Taste starts with a sweet caramel maltiness, a bit toasty and grainy, and ends with a smooth hopped bitterness that fades in and out very well. This brew finishes with a dry spice taste that brings out the bitterness quite a bit, leaving it seem a bit overwhelming, but maybe thats just me.

Copper color with a medium white head. Aroma is initially hoppy with some toasty and caramel like malt behind it. Slighlty fruity hops, moderatley sweet malts, notes of molasses. Fairly bitter finish. Not bad.