Southern Tier Old Man Winter Ale

Brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Lakewood, New York USA

12oz Bottle: Ruddy brown body w/ a two finger off-white head. Leaves some decent lacing hanging around. Aroma is malty & has a caramel thing going on w/ a hint of smokey spice. Flavor isn’t what I thought it would be, kind of bitter. A little bit of caramel peeks through, but mostly bitter hops w/ a dry finish. Pretty average...it does get better as it warms. The bitterness calms down & things smooth out a bit.

Um, no. 12 oz. brown longneck bottle. No freshness date seen. Poured out a decent shade & all, but the aromas put me right off this beer. Smells like boiled cabbage mixed with canned corn. Big time problems indicated here. Flavors are of cooked cabbage. Maybe I’ll rate it again, if I can find a better bottle.

Pours a dark opaque brown with a white head. Has hints of spice, caramel, nuts, lots of hops. Finishes smooth and sweet with a dry feeling on the palate.

From a bottle. Pours amber with small white head. Smells hoppy with some malt peaking through. Taste of more hops and a some roasty malts. Could be more balanced but a good beer for the winter time.

Good winter beer here -- highly hopped dark ale with little coming to the nose, and this is basically what makes this beer more on the normal side. Should be interesting to see how this one ages however, letting the hops seep into the beer and become less of the focal point. Southern Tier is a great brewery and rarely just bombs hops, but that is what this one tastes like, a west coast wannabe. Show some east coast pride and be prudent with the hop: Southern Tier normally does this and thus I am surprised. Still a classy beer.

This is a decent enough beer. Aroma was the oddest thing about it. deep smokey wood and roasted malt aroma that doesn’t carry through to the flavor. Pour was a deep dark amber with no head. Taste was dark, roasty and bitter. Not much carbonation in this (barely any) which is a shame as this may have been in the 4s. As it warms there is some sweet caramel and iced tea flavors coming out. Very complex.

[25 Dec 2007] Southern Tier Old Man Winter Ale is clear and tawny with a small off-white head. The aroma is of dark roast, sweet sugar and perhaps spice. There is grain in the nose. It is light-to-medium bodied and crisp. The flavor is dark, sweet and bitter with almost a smokiness. I don’t think these guys make any bad beers. [16 Mar 2008] I got a bottle of this from a coworker that’s been in his cellar for four years or so. There is a lot of white sediment in the bottle. It is clear and amber with a thin white head. The aroma is sweet and dominated by fruity esters. It’s perhaps a bit floral. It has a medium body that’s quite smooth and slick. The flavor showcases those fruity esters again. By the end of the taste, it turns roasty. The aftertaste is a little sour. It has a lot of port wine qualities-- quite a bit of twang! Aging this really made it seem like an Old Ale. The aroma was a little strange, the flavor a little more focused and the palate improved. I’d still give this a 3.2, with a palate of 4/5 and an aroma of 6/10.

Aroma is grainey malt and black pekoe tea9probaly coming from the hopping, taste is mildy sweet malt,its concession to being a holiday brew,more red sucker then caramel, and a spicey hop finish,relaxing safely brewedbeer,but sipping and pondering its richness,ah no.