Butte Creek Christmas Cranberry Ale

Formerly brewed at Butte Creek Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Chico, California USA

A murky orange color I expected it to be red? A cranberry and coriander aroma. The flavor is rather crisp with cranberries of course and a hint of spice. I also picked up some apples oddly enough. The body was rather thin and it wasnt exactly bursting with flavor. Overall it was ok.

Yikes just the though of using this type of fruit in a beer made me cringe, but the label artwork made me laugh. I was intrigued so I had to pick up a bottle. A sweet and somewhat sour aroma leads into a flavor that is suprisingly thin, with just hints of fruit and some grassy hoppiness in the aftertaste. This is a farely boring beer for a winter seasonal, disappointing. Finishes somewhat spicy, which I can only imagine is this one finally reached proper temperature and was over before it could quite begin, too bad I will never know.

Pours a light brown with dark orange highlights. The head is thin. The aroma is a bit of cranberry in the aroma. This is not a strong aroma, but there isn’t a lot else going on. A very light maltiness is backed up by a small touch of the cranberry. A little bit of bitterness in the end. A bit lackluster.

Pours orange-red with a thin white head. Aroma is slightly sour and earthy. Flavor is bitter, but I think from the cranberry and not hops. Also a slight amount of spice. Quite dry on the palate and refreshing. Expected a little more body for the season.

Pours a transparent deep copper with a thin, light tan head. Dry earthy malty aroma has some subtle fruit notes. Starts with a dry malty body turning a touch sweeter and sugary toward a lightly tart, drier cranberry finish. An interesting brew, but not all that wonderful.

(22 oz bottle: $2.79 at Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA) With this being a fruit beer, you’d think the single characteristic that pops out at me the most would be the fruit, but no, it’s the husky grain maltiness and obvious dusty and chalky flavor. Sweetness is fairly light, with a mild bitterness emerging toward the finish. And, oh yeah, there is only a subtle hint of tart cranberries. The nose is lightly sweet, husky, dusty, and with even less of a hint of cranberry. Light-medium bodied and gently carbonated, gently tart and clean on the palate, and the mouthfeel is very chalky. Golden amber in color and somewhat cloudy in appearance. The off-white head pours to maybe half an inch before settling to a ring within a few minutes. Quite the yawner here, there just isn’t much going on in what is supposed to be a holiday beer, and with only a slight undercurrent of cranberries, it’s not even much of a fruit beer. ZZzz..

This was a nice Christmas Ale but there was not a lot going for this beer. The very light to almost no Cranberry flavor. It was a cloudy beer with a dark amber color. The hops where refereshing to taste. This was a nice beer I would drink again but not one my top fruit beers that I love so much.

Poured a hazy copper color with a minimal off-white head. Fruity malt aroma. Sweet. Cranberry and catelope. Slightly tart. Flavor starts with a little malt and then disappears leaving a touch off bitterness. It was almost like nothing was drank.