Left Hand Snow Bound Winter Ale

Formerly brewed at Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Longmont, Colorado USA

ginger, spice aroma. rich brown, little head. this very fully flavored and complex winter brew contains honey, spice and a pleasant moderate chocolate component. A an excellent winter brew!

Sample at December 12, 2008 Beer Club meeting. Medium dark brown color. Small head. Spicy aroma! Reminds me of a spice cake. Light, but a little syrupy. You can actually taste the alcohol a little in this. And the spices... cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon are in your face but not overpowering. Heavy, nice gravity. Love it!

Bottle. Dark amber pour with a beige head. Sweet and spicy aroma and flavor. The spice really stands out in the flavor, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and a mild orange presence... really tastes like Christmas. Outstanding, even in June.

Bottle 22 oz. Pours a medium to dark brown with small off white head. Aroma is full of ginger, with nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove. Some light sugary sweetness comes through in the nose as well. Flavor is fairly heavy on the spice side with similar notes as the aroma, covering up any potential malt or hop presence. Finish is short and has the same amalgam of spices. Carbonation is low and mouthfeel medium thick. Alcohol is evident in the finish but not nearly 8.6% evident. Not bad for a winter warmer though possibly overspiced.

With the chilling embrace of Colorado’s 2006 Christmas miracle still clogging the highways and residential roads, and no sign of a concerted angioplasty to clear paths, I headed down to my refrigerator to make a toast. The snow was inevitable, unavoidable and heavy, and if it was going to invite itself to my home I might as well drink to its honor and be done with the formality. Seizing on the pun I chose the bottle of Snowbound I had from my box of seasonal brews and held the label art up to my front door. It had become a very familiar scene in the last couple of days. But somewhere I was glad for it. The snow had pressed neighbors together, and brought one man to his fellow man in an admirable display of brotherly love which sunny conditions would deign to bring about. Also, it is great fun to throw someone shorter than you into a six foot snow drift and watch them struggle to get out. So a toast it was; a kind of commemoration to a vast white misery for anything that wanted to go somewhere, and an underlying nod of approval for all the good things it did and does. Left Hand’s Snow Bound is a very Janus-faced beer, I think, where the first taste was anathematic to my buds, and each sip after that more agreeable. When I first gave it a try I thought I had sampled a bitter salad smoothie with all the nasty tongue curling greens that make up the mainstay of vegan arrogance. You know those spiny, purplish leaves that always show up in salads simply because they won some accolades from a dietician somewhere? It tasted like those, and sent a wave of disapproval through my body down to my toes. But successive sips of the dark and honey-orange beer proved to be sweeter and more appealing. Past the thick, dense and protective head, within that brew was a Yin-Yang chemistry where the flavor was at once bitter leaves and then sweet with spice. Saffron, nutmeg, brown sugar, cinnamon, chalk, celery seed conducted the drinker to a more dulcet part of the beer. The smell was by far the sweetest facet, practically fuming with redolent pumpkin pie, chai and a bucket load of other mixed spices. There’s a lot of New World trade in this bottle and the brewer’s make no attempt to hide it. A lot of enthusiasm and many empty spice canisters later they’ve produced a marvelously flavored beer that verges on excess, but it’s a dynamic drinking experience to be sure. Each sip exhibits a different dominant flavor, giving each spice a time slot to shine amongst its comrades in flavor. They’re compressed, bumping and pushing, vying for the top spot. The balance shifts with each motion of the glass, such that a simple swirl to accent a speech may change the composition of the beer entirely. Even though the spices are all contesting each other, brought together and residing in the same bottle, they all manage to find their place, much as my neighbors did as we stood helplessly stranded in our inclined cul-de-sac. But, qualities aside, I can always appreciate having a beer like this so perfectly matched to prevailing conditions of snow, ice and an imminent Christmas Eve.

Bottle. Beer is quite decent and has a good warming sensation but the alcohol does not effect the flavor in a bad way.

Finally getting around to killin this bomber. Somehow ended up in the back of the cellarette. Amber brew, large tan foamy head, very corn syrup sweet malt aroma. Caramel and nutmeg notes, smells delicious, like dessert. Med body good malt and hops pairing Flavor is all-spice with a gentle warmth and dry spicy finish. Good warmth for a winter day but seeing how it is 98 degrees today I will drink inside.

I tasted this beer at the Capital Ale house. The spices were immediately evident. The color was deep amber. the alcohol was alos detected. i thought this would be great after skiing. Not something I would have evry night.