Bison Organic Gingerbread Ale

Brewed by Bison Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Berkeley, California USA

GABF 05. Pours a deep brown with an aroma of, you guessed it, gingerbread. Flavor is a nice balance of gingerbread, nutmeg, and coriander. Good beer.

brown amber pour tan small bubbled head well laced. Smells like a gingerbread man some light carmel too. Highly carbonated and well caoted. Odd yeasty teaste hints of chocolate and ginger w/ lots of other spice. Odd but not bad.

Deep, but clear, brown-maroon hue; thick, frothy/foamy, light tan head. Lots of the requisit gingerbread but also smells like stale icing on a year-old gingerbread house. Chocolate, caramel, corriander?, herbal aromas. Moderately sweet flavor. Moderately sweet, lightly bitter finish. Spicy, but not much else. Could use a big caramel flavor. Medium body, watery/thin texture, fizzy carbonation.

Most amusing find. I got my hands on this across the Alabama line in GA. Funny part was that I had been to this brewery in Berkley about 4-5 years ago and was shocked to see it in some out of the way southern liquor store. Anyhow, poured amber to garnet color. Very clear. Medium foamy off white head. The aroma was light spice (yes, ginger, and cinnamon come to mind) with citrus hops and grain. Very light body and flavor. Toasty malts and very mellow/subdued spice. Not bad but non-descript. I was really hoping for a heavier more flavorful brew here. A bit disappointing, as I had remembered the Bison Brewery with fondness.

I’ve seen this one for some time now, but never bothered to pick up a bottle. I finally started to feel sorry for the bottles sitting untouched on the shelf, and picked one up. Attractive deep brown, nice head, good lacing. Aroma was of ginger, cinammon, and nutmeg, like gingerbread, or many of the pumpkin ales out there. Flavor is comprised of the same elements. Liquid pumpkin pie or gingerbread, take your pick. Don’t really feel like I’m drinking a beer. Not my thing. Better if you gulp so it doesn’t hit your tongue. Must admit there isn’t actually anything wrong with this beer, but I can’t imagine ever drinking more than one bottle of this. In a lifetime.

Looks damned near like a glass of Cola, clear Ruby/Brown with a small beige head. Gingerbread yes, spicy Nutmeg, Allspice and a touch of roastyness as if it just came out of the oven. Taste is a let down after the aroma, mild spice on a weak malt profile with a thin body. Nothing really jumps out to be noticed. Subtle for a Holiday beer and just too odd for daily drinking, this doesn’t really have a niche other than as an oddity. I’d like to try it again during the holiday season with non-beer geek friends just to gauge their reaction.

I thought this sounded interesting, until, that is, I recalled I didn’t even care much for gingerbread when I was a kid oh, so long ago. It pours a clear, light mahogany body, lightly carbonated, with an unimpressive light tan head. The gingerbread ingredients are all there in the aroma - ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg. In the flavor, they pretty well blanket all malt-related tastes. The finish, too, feels like you’ve just eaten a cookie. All in all, this comes across like any of a number of real imaginative "Christmas Ales," meaning fill it with allspice flavors.

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Well, sure enough... it smells of gingerbread! Pours into a cola-esque, brownish-amber. Rather thin looking, but healthy for the style. Head is very thick, long-lasting, and tan-khaki colored. Extraordinary lacing... the head is seemingly undiminishing. Aroma is fresh baked gingerbread along with pumpkin spices, cloves and nutmeg. Reminds me a lot of the Dogfish head "Punk’n Ale". Mouthfeel is thin, really too thin.Taste is heavy malt with no hops, just the tingle and sizzle of the many spices. Dark cherries and a little cocoa can be found on the palate, but the end result is wateriness. Aftertaste is just some malty sweetness, like what taste is left over after consuming cheap syrup on a pancake. Could use some thickening in both consistency and palate.