Sly Fox Christmas Ale

Brewed by Sly Fox Brewhouse
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Royersford and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania USA

2005 courtesy of egajdzis. Bright ruddy-amber body with a silky beige head. Aroma of medium sweet, warm caramel, cherry, light toffee, and fruitcake plus a nice blend of subtle, well-melded spices including apparent cinnamon and ginger. Flavorful, pleasant, and not too sweet, actually finishing semi-dry. A very good Christmas beer and a nice surprise. In my book, this eclipses most holiday beers that come to mind.

2005 bottle. Had this at the final Heavyweight Open House. Lots of winter spices such as nutmeg and orange pekoe, which made it taste a little like tea. It was pretty refreshing, as it was pretty dry. The mouthfeel was a little bit rough with all of the super foaminess of the carbonation. 2006: Same with the strong carbonation, super-foamy mouthfeel. Nutmeg and spices, with a somewhat astringent alcohol burn. But there is a bit more of a well-rounded bit of cocoa in the flavor, which I like, so I will raise my rating a bit.

2005 bottle thanks to egajdzis. Hazy light chestnut color with a good sized beige head. Sweet baking spice aroma(cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, etc.) with some bradiness as well. Sweet malty flavor with tons of cinnamon in there. I don’t think I have ever had a beer with that much cinnamon. A bit of nutmeg and pepper in the flavor as well.

This ale pours a deep brown color from a cork finish 750ml bottle. Large sized white foamy head. Aroma is ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. A medium bodied ale. Malts are fruity and sweet. Lots of brown sugar and molasses flavors, as well as pumpkin pie spices minus the pumpkin. Malty and fairly sweet but kind of balanced by the spices. Lively carbonation. Nice Christmas beer. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

2005 Vintage. Poured a hazy amber color with a light reddish hue. Large but quickly diminishing off-white head. The aroma smelled like ginger bread as well as regualr chocolate chip (sans the chocolate) cookies. Malty with additional notes of raisins. Malty flavor with ginger and spices. Lively mouthfeel. Semi-dry finish.

Clear amber pour with a thin offwhite head. Aroma of butter, gingerbread and banana. Flavor of butter, gingerbread, spices and banana, it feels like the spices are a bit overkill. Light to medium body with an oily texture and strong carbonation. Hmm, it feels like they tried a bit too hard on this one, it’s not really bad but I wouldn’t drink this again.

Ginger, butter, banana, cinnamon, vanilla, cookie dough and a soft round spiciness in the extremely sweet aroma. Sure, there’s plenty going on but it seems disjointed. Opaque, deep amber-brown coloured body is topped by a lasting, off white head. Big gingerbread cookie dough flavour suggests brown sugar, caramel, vanilla, toffee and of course plenty of spices as well as a fair bitterness, but all in all the sweetness is cloying. Medium body with somewhat low carbonation. Call me Scrooge, I guess. Bottle sampled with beerbuzzmontreal, Goldorak, MartinT, muzzlehatch, Olivier_MTL, Rastacouere and Siroy.

Bottle: Deep ruby hued caramel, large frothy light beige head, sparce lacing.   Spicy nose, ginger being most predominant, followed by soft cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.   Same spices on the tongue as on the nose.   Comes across as a Pumpkin Ale, but without any Pumpkin.   Slightly spritzy mouthfeel, sweet, with a quick clean finish.   Underlying base on this one is somewhat boring.   Needs to be a Porter or something.   Fairly good otherwise.   Thanks Jason for the bottle.