Viking Brewing Juleøl

Brewed by Viking Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Dallas, Wisconsin USA

Slight haze. Very active head. The nose reminds me of my honeymoon for some reason, so perfect marks for that. Fizziness is absurd. Slight tart. Some ginger. Yummy. Very nice with lots of green fruit.

Big thanks to RobertsReality for this. Gold pour with medium head. Aroma of malt, big spices, corn bread, fruit, blueberry muffins. Tastes very pumpkiny, with some nutmeg, cinnamon, fruit, and spices. Medium palate with awesome pumpkin and spice aroma and taste. I don’t see this as a Vienna. I see it as the finest pumpkin ale I have ever had, and a top notch spice/herb/vegetable offering as well.

Orange, coriander, nutmeg, and crispy spicy goodness make this a great pre-dinner snack beer. Carbonated like 7-up, and the yellow-orange kidney-stone color is off-putting, but serve cold with some dry cheese, and let the flavors play. I would drink this again.

Sampled at the brewery.
Christmastime kitchen in a bottle. Alas, a Christmas/winter beer that isn’t completely overwhelmed with spices like a woman wearing too much perfume. Light lager base allows for a more nuanced application of spicing agents. Aroma of citrus, cinnamon and ginger. Clear orange amber with thin head. Citrus, ginger, cinnamon, clove, a touch of molassas in the flavor. I never suspected that liquid gingerbread could taste this good. Light, thin palate. A fascinating Christmas beer. Agreed with others -- should be classified as an herb/spice beer.

This is a very well done, misclassified herb/spice/vegetable beer (in total agreement with DocLock in this regard). Color is deep amber with plenty of floaties. There is little head or lacing to spead of, maybe that’s how this style is. Aroma has a malt base with a pumpkin & spice backup. The flavor is stupendous -- pumpkin is the first flavor but its mellowness is backed up by a wheaty, citrus tang. Malt is strongly present as well, along with traditional spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg. Somewhat flat, uncarbonated mouthfeel as is typical of this brewery; but this isn’t too unlike mead, which was the trademark alcoholic beverage in the days of the Vikings, so I no longer slight the brewery for this. Interesting thing about Viking -- it seems like a family-run outfit, and their products seem to be either really lousy, or like this one, positive!

An exceptionally unique beer. Powerful aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg, and eggnog. Complex with lots of flavors. Cinnamon, citrus, eggnog, and spice. This is good stuff. Tastes like...Christmas.

12 oz bottle from Cellars in Minnetonka, MN (Dec 2005). I love the bottle design, a bunch of happy kids dancing in a circle around a Christmas tree...bring a warm feeling. Ok, the beer itself: it pours a foggy dark gold with a muscular but quick-decaying snow-white head....nose assaults with lemon/orange-peel and lots of ginger, baked apples, possibly some cinnnamon and cardamom, and sourdough....somewhat "light" for a spiced beer, not at all like say Anchor OSA but just as distinctive....much less spice in the body, though there is a subtle candyish quality running through, and the lemon-gingery character is restrained and refreshing rather than overpowering or cloying....light German yeastiness there, too, making the supple mouthfeel a bit more complex and memorable....moderately sweet and fairly heavily carbonated and prickly at first, this dries and smooths out a lot, with just a hint of honey thickness through to the finish....quite lovely, a surprise for me as I was beginning to completely give up on this brewery. Probably the best I’ve had from them.

Lightly hazy dark straw color. Smaller white bubbly head. Aroma starts as fresh baked apple pie (nutmeg and cinnamon) and turns to fresh baked bread. Light spice flavors of nutmeg, mace and cinnamon. Light malt flavors. Light and balanced. A very quaffable spiced lager.