Shipyard Longfellow Winter Ale

Brewed by Shipyard Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Portland, Maine USA

Big hiss as the cap comes off, pouring a deep brown color with safire accents when put to light. Dense, tall and tightly packed tan bubbles form the head, and each consecutive pour seems to yield a taller and sudsier head. Aromatic invitation to the tune of rye, buttery pumpernickel, chocolate, butterscotch, peat, hearty pecans and caramel laden peanut brittle. Strong malt backbone rests on a scotch ale flavor appeal, warming like a single malt scotch on said winter day. Wonderful parry of rye and hop bitterness. Chocolate and hazelnut liqueur give a preemptive robust and nutty signature, sliding right into brazen walnuts, English toffee and sappy, spruce concocted caramel. A little harsh and sulfurous upfront, spritsy, and then waxy with a cohesive syrupy layer subsiding across the palate. A touch too carbonated, but the fizzles’ wake reveals a new layer of sweet nuances, finishing very much in line with hot buttered rum. An enjoyable change of pace, courtesy of tpkenned!

Maine Brewers Festival 2005. Cask. Very dark brown, good sized beige head. Interesting aroma, malt and earthy sugars. Sweet malt flavour with a bit of a bite to it. Lingering malt and (my notes have a blank underlined space I apparently intended to come back to). Sweet sugary malt is the impression of the over all. Average palate is superb for a casl. (3+) One of the better beers of the night on first sample. I came back to it later in the night and it didn’t seem as good, but the notebook was put away by then. I wonder if it was a different cask or if it was just me?

This reminds me of Bert Grant’s Perfect porter...in that it just isn’t quite thick enough to be truly perfect. Great flavors and definitely a well done beer worth the time to drink, but the several times I have had it I just felt the body was too thin. Compared to say A Belgian Strong Ale (which is what it most tates like to me with the sweet spun sugar flavors) it just doesn’t have much body and the release of gasses is less than you’d expect as well.

Thanks to matta for the bottle! Opaque ruby-brown. Small foamy tan head. Aroma ia dark fruits, sweet malts, caramel and light brown sugar. Taste is sort of thinner than expected but still nice. Caramel, light dark fruits, fleeting sugary notes, light bitter hoppiness, some yeasty notes, and some coffee. Body is very dry with moderate carbonation. Finish is light spice, more dark fruits, caramel, and hops with a bone dry end to it.

22 oz labeled "limited release" must be a winter 2004 bottle. Pour is a clear ruby-orange-mahogany, quite a layered color effect with lasting light beige head, that is very creamy and thick, but with virtually no lacing (filtered). Smells of dry breadiness, light roast and toasted malt, caramel, hints of cherries and candied oranges. A little bit of stale cardboardy-mustiness. Flavor begins quite sweet and sugary. Basic caramel and toffee malt flavors with some English yeast fruitiness (cherries, plums, stawberries). A subdued roastiness goes well with the creamy sweetness, but could be, perhaps, a bit more assertive. As it warms and breathes, some of the sugary thickness recedes and leaves behind a lighter, mroe chocolatey and fruity concoction. Hints of spice and English-like hops (dry, soily, slightly bitter). The creamy malt sweetness is reserved for the finish now, which comes alive with depth of flavors (caramel, brown sugar, cake icing, Godiva liqueur, chocolate covered cherries, cinnamon and allspice). The longer it warms and breathes, the more I enjoy it. Medium-full body with a lightly creamy mouthfeel despite the seemingly high filtration. No alcohol apparency.

22 oz bottle. Clear brown/red with a smallish, tan head. Aroma of light hops, orange, apple and roasted malts. Taste is lightly smoked with some caramel and chocolate and yeast. Not bad not great either.

This was good. I like my winter brews. Good spice and warmth feeling to it. Orange, grapefruit, ginger and cinnamon flavors give it depth with a little alcohol burn.

It didnt seem very "strong" to me but anyhow it poured a dark brown color. Some chocolate, grapes, and ginger. Hmmm I had more written down but it looks my rating sheet was torn off. Well I guess that about covers it then. Pretty good stuff.