River Horse Belgian Freeze Winter Ale

Brewed by River Horse Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Lambertville, New Jersey USA

Muddy orange color. Lots of flavor and aroma. Spicy. Lots of heavy malt. A nice winter warmer. And the people at the River Horse booth were very inviting and friendly, especially to a nerd with a notebook.

Despite the ratings, I found this brew fairly enjoyable and unique. Interesting aromas of brown sugar, molasses and dark fruits are noted. Attractive deep amber-brown color. Sweet on the palate with flavors of figs, raisins, brown sugar and dark carmalized grain. Finish seems a bit thin and quick which was disappointing. Didn’t really sense any parallels to a Belgian Strong style however.

Bitter! Dark for a belgian, relatively speaking. Weird cereal off-putting taste. Hint of lemon. Maybe better at the brewery? Hops are reassuring.

i went to the brewery and sampled some of the beers, and i like this one the least, had a burnt wood taste, worth trying once, other people that were with me liked it.

Pours a deep brown amber. Small off white head, mostly diminishing, leaving slight lace. Sweet malty nose, yeasty. Starts out sweet, molasses, roasted grain, dark fruit, steady carbonation, nice mouthfeel, yeasty faint hop finish.

bottle from Rich. a very dark almost cola colored brown. aroma and flavors of roated malt and candi sugar. a good but rather unspectacular Belgian strong ale.

Upside: a sweet malty aroma emanates from the bottle or glass. On the first sip, I sense a beer that is as sweet as candy thanks to its blend of a burnt-tasting malt and spices. Downside: it accentuates sweetness over complexity. Its finish is a bit rough as its aftertaste lingers. The carbonation is a bit too high in the bottled version and I liked it better on tap.

12 oz bottle, tasted in my Ratebeer tulip, and provided by Rich: Glowing ruby hue with a fading head and no lace. The aroma has notes of belgian candi sugar and brown sugar, caramelized malting, raisin and dates, and some earthy esters, lots of aromatic pipe tobacco notes. The taste is quite sweet and unbalanced, some fruity tones try to add depth to the palate but fail. I get some grassy notes and a licorice undertone but all that sweetness masks all other tastes to an extreme. Additionally, there is an undercurrent of wet cardboard and unspent grains that make this less than enjoyable. Folks, I can dig a sweet beer but this is simply too much for even my hardened palate to take. I just must say that this starts okay but in the end is quite disappointing.