Bison Organic Gingerbread Ale

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

Appearance is clear dark brown with ruby highlights, craggy off-white head erodes to half its original thickness, moderate lacing on the glass. Smell is amazingly fresh gingerbread cookies, some coffee and chocolate tones linger in the back, cinnamon and spices. Taste is fairly light bread and roast malts, surprising sweet chocolate presence, hints of smoke, cinnamon, gingerbread, and sugar tones, some very subtle bitter hops near the end. Mouthfeel is light-to-medium bodied, thin yet creamy texture, mild carbonation. This is a unique winter beer with great spice profile, there is a bit of a disconnect between the aroma and taste (gingerbread lower than expected, chocolate higher than expected), the alcohol is well-masked but the spices make it hard to finish even the whole 22oz bottle.

I had been putting off drinking this one because the name just didn’t appeal to me. I was wrong. This was an OK beer. Not overwhelming with ginger on the nose or tongue. Mostly I taste dark malt and brown sugar with a hit of ginger.

Bomber. The body is dark brown with some dark amber highlights. The head is light tan and huge. The aroma is light gingerbread with some caramel. There is also some green beans and earhty cigarette tobacco. The taste is light caramel with a little bit of the ginger in the finish. There is also some apples and black tea. The base beer seems to be a middle of the road brown ale.

I was very excited about the aroma of this beer, but the flavor was awful. The aroma is like a fresh baked gingerbread cookie with some brown sugar notes, but the aroma all but disappears in the taste. It smells like it will be sweet, but the aroma is lost in the porterness of this beer. Did not like it.

Dark brown pour with a big brown fizzy head. Very light hints of brown sugar and ginger on the nose. Flavor has ginger, sugar, and finishes with roast. A lot of carbination in this one.

Bottle. Medium size frothy, fizzy tan head that was mostly lasting, spotty amounts of lacing, transparent, fizzy, fast rising carbonation observed, and a mahogany hue. The nose was malt, sugar, light roasty notes, spicy, sweet, and what else? gingerbread!! Flavor was sweet, roasty, malty, spicy, gingerbread, hint of smokiness, and finishes dry and somewhat thick and chewey. Fairly smooth mouthfeel and dry and medium in body. Quaffable, but not a beer I want to have again as a beer that reminds me of gingerbread just doesn’t cut it for me. To each their own as the saying goes.

Bottle. Pours a dark brown with red highlights. Foamy, soap-like tan head. Quickly vanishing lacing. Pure gingerbread aromas. Ginger, dough, brown sugar, thin molasses. Flavor is the same, naturally. With some coffee, too. Roasted malts, brown sugar, chocolate. Pretty enjoyable. Thin-bodied, chalky mouthfeel. Very drinkable. Better than advertised.

Very impressed with Bison’s Chocolate Stout...not so much with this one. Beer pours an amber/brown color with not much in the way of head or lacing. Smells DELICIOUS, just like a true gingerbread cookie. Hints of oats and other spices as well. Taste is the big let down here; thin, watery, and just too much spice. I couldn’t finish, and instead gave it to my GF to drink. She liked it much more than I did.