Stoudts Holiday Reserve

Formerly brewed at Stoudts Brewing Co.
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Adamstown, Pennsylvania USA

Dark reddish amber. Citric, roasty aroma. Medium bodied with fruity flavour, crystal malt profile and a balanced bitter finish.

On tap (3/20/04). Poured a medium amber in color. Malty and light spicey aromas and tastes. Dry finish. Nothing special about this one.

From a keg at Zeno’s, it was simply called Stoudt’s Reserve Lager, and I think it’s the 2001 or 2002 vintage of this beer (or these beers). Color was glowing and clear honey amber, nose was lightly spicy and plenty hoppy, fruity pineapple and lemon scented hops with honey and light cedar wood. Flavor was similar, honey, melon and pineapple hop flavors, lightly prickly on the tongue, light anise (or something similar) noticed. Good stuff. Like a spiced IPA.

765 (???) ml bottle. Large fizzy fast-diminishing head tops a clear maple-syrup colored body. Nose slightly maple-ish, slightly hoppy, reasonably malty, nice but nothing special. Flavor sweet, dark, oaky, somewhat sour-milkish at the end (uggh). Mouthfeel smooth and silky but also rather thin, if that makes sense. I like the beginning flavor a lot, but that’s about it for this so-so seasonal.

This bottled brew poured a medium sized head of light brown colored fine to large sized mostly lasting bubbles that left behind a softly carbonated brown colored semi-transpatrent body and a good lace. The aroma was mild with malty notes and the mouthfeel was smooth with a tingly feeling to it. The flavor wa mild with onoy a little brown beer flavor and some spice to it. All-inall a decent enough of a brew not bad not great.

Poured an amber brownish color with a small white head. Had a dominant citrusy hop aroma with some spicy malt. Taste was malty, slightly hoppy and sweet as well. This brew ended up being slightly spicy (very slightly) with a rather bland taste, for a holiday ale.

Bottle. A small sized tan head that was creamy and contained fine-large sized bubbles that mostly diminished. The body was carbonated with a brownish hue. The nose was malty, caramel and some spice notes. The flavor of this beer was sweet and malty with a slight aftertaste that did not linger. The mouthfeel was smooth and this was a medium-full bodied beer with fair amounts of lacing on the sides of my glass.

Winter 2002/2003 Bottle: Dark ruby/amber with a medium light beige head. Aroma is lightly spiced and malty. Flavor is not as spicy as many holiday brews. This brew is mostly on the malt side with some hops and spice, but neither in great quantity. On the scale of most holiday brews I have tried this is on the mild side but it was better than average.