Great Lakes Winter Ale

Great Lakes Brewery is one of many breweries that market seasonal beers. This practice started with the release of Green Tea Ale last spring, followed by the rather enjoyable Orange Peel Ale last summer, and then there was the horrific Pumpkin Ale that was marketed for Halloween. For Christmas, Great Lakes Brewery has released another seasonal novelty called Winter Ale. Typical of Great Lakes Brewery packaging for it's seasonal products, the beer comes in a 750 ml bottle with the labeling painted directly on the glass, and has an abv of 6.2%.

The Great Lakes website has this to say about the product:

Inspired by the long, cold and seemingly endless Canadian winter, our 6.2% alcohol Winter Ale is a true winter warmer. Handcrafted with specialty hops and malts, combined with generous amounts of cinnamon, honey, ginger and orange peel, this unique beer is brimming with flavour. Available only for a limited time.

Brian picked this one up at the local LCBO and invited me over to try it. After reading the description of what was used to make this brew, I was slightly dismayed with the prospect of reviewing it. I have had several beers (notably from Belgium) that used various spices in their manufacture, and all with the same miserable results. However, having survived both An Evening of Bumwine and such hateful products such as Corporal's Bitter Brown Ale and La Fin Du Monde, I decided that I would not be so easily defeated by a little cinnamon and ginger.

We popped the cap and pured out three samples. The beer is brown with little head, and had no strange smells nor sea monkeys. We tipped our samples back and drank. The beer was very spicy with a strong cinnamon flavour, with something Brian was instantly suspicious about. Michelle remarked it was "definately odd" but it wasn't entirely unpleasant. I personally thought it was quite festive, however it wasn't anything you would want to pound back all night. In fact, we all thought that a 750 of this would likely be too much for one person. While the beer was definitely "brimming with flavour", the unique flavour seemed to overpower the palate to the point where one glass seemed more than enough. As we finished the samples, Brian stated that this was like the "no-name Dr. Pepper of beers."

Great Lakes Winter Ale - Final Score:
Brian - 6/10
Michelle: 5/10
Myself - 6/10

On a final note, this will be the last post for 2009. However, we will be a tasting on New Year's Eve and I will do my best to fight off the hangover for an update on New Year's Day.

From all of us here at Liquor Pig, we wish you a safe and drunken New Years! See you in 2010!!!

Bah Humbug! Christmas Ale

Another entry under the 'seasonal' catagory, Wychwood Breweries' Bah Humbug! Christmas Ale is another novelty beer brought in by the LCBO for the holiday season. Wychwood Breweries is based in Oxfordshire, England and its line includes other brands such as Hobgoblin, Fiddler's Elbow and Winter's Troll. Most of their products have a colourful cartoon mascot for that particular brand, and Bah Humbug! is no different. The label is a scowl-faced caricature of Dicken's Scrooge (which the beer is somewhat named after) with the ghost of Jacob Marley in the background. The illustration is fitting for more than the obvious reasons.

Wychwood tends to use heavy bottles for its beer, which is great even if you don't live in a country where bottling your adversaries during drunken pub brawls are a common event. The bottle is sturdy and gives the impression of quality. The reverse label indicates the following:

Spiced beer. Brewed with the choicest hops and malt, lightly spiced with cinnamon, this is a rich ale complimented with the subtle taste of dried fruits. Beer with cinnamon.

Now I don't know about you, but the last 'spicy' beer I drank was Chimay and the coriander aftertaste did not fit the flavour profile at all. Undaunted, I poured the dark brew into a pint glass and drank. It smelled not unlike any other dark ale I have tried, with no evidence of cinnamon, nutmeg or any other surprises they may have added for laughs. The taste is a sweet, malty profile to be expected from such a dark brew, kind of flat with a slight cinnamon aftertaste. I personally could not detect any "dried fruits" in the mix, and it was somewhat reminiscent of the dark malt homebrew I used to make at home with my dad. While I couldn't see myself drinking more than one of these without getting turned off alcohol for the rest of the night (and/or becoming violently ill), it really wasn't bad for a before-dinner drink on a cold December night. Definately something different for the holidays, and with enough of them in you, you might just see the ghost of Jacob Marley yourself!