McKenzie Biere d’Hiver

Brewed by McKenzie Brew House
Style: Bière de Garde
Glen Mills, Pennsylvania USA

(750ml bottle, thanks kmweaver) Cloudy amber body topped by medium body that mostly dissipates. Aroma is medium sweet, caramel, some honey, light hay. Taste is medium sweet, caramel, pepper, some honey. Fairly dry finish. Medium-full body, some stickiness, effervescence.

Courtesy of kmweaver. Cloudy amber body with a large off-white head. The nose is dough, caramel, cookie dough, golden fruits and herbs. The flavor is estery with bananas, golden raisins, herbs, honey and bread. Medium/full body is round with moderate carbonation.

750mL bottle, courtesy of hopdog, I believe. Thanks, Steve! Pours a hazy, orange-amber color; thin off-white head with mixed-bubbled lacing. Pleasant amounts of toasty malts, fruitiness, honey, and sugar in the aroma; very soft spicing. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: honey, sugar, pleasant chewy maltiness, and light spicing; bready malts and slight residual sugar; a bit muddled, but pretty tasty with a solid honey note. Medium finish: breadiness, honey, and toasty malts.

Corked bottle from Chadds Ford. Poured ruddy off-brown color with fizzy off-white head. The aroma was spicy florals, some earthy peaty notes, and some figgy fruit and malt. The flavor was spicy, floral, candi sugary, coming off like their dark saison in flavor and palate, but the flavors didn’t seem to meld here very well. Also, there was at least 3 inches of yeast and sediment in the bottom of this bottle, which prevented me from drinking ther last dregs, even with careful decantation. A mild disappointment.

Draught @ Malvern Brewpub: Sweet aroma. Smells of honey, candi sugar, alcohol, and spices. Poured amber in color with a tiny off-white head. Hazy. Flavor is medium sweet. Tastes of malts, spices, grains, alcohol, sourdough, and pretzel. Medium body. Dry texture. Average carbonation. Spicy, salty finish. Alcohol was warming, despited being only 7.7%ABV.

Tap at Malvern. Pours out a nice reddish amber/copper color with a small white head. Aroma is sweet with slight spice and fruit. Flavor is complex, nice full mouthfeel, honey with some spice, fruit, yeast, some caramel and a dry alcoholic finish. I liked it

On draft at Malvern location. Poured a copper color with a beige head. Aroma was sweet with honey and a tad spicy. Taste was of spices, candy sugar, honey, with a touch of farmhouse yeast present. The finish was quite a bit spicy and showed the alcohol a little.

On tap at the Malvern location. Poured a medium amber color with a small sized off white head. Aromas of grains, honey, and spices. Tastes of grains, spices, caramel, and candi sugar sweet. Some fruitiness as well. Lots of honey. I’ll go against the grain on this one, but I don’t like honey too much.