Winter Ale Taste-Off

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I have a minute to write up the results of our Winter Ale Taste-Off. For the Taste-Off, my wife and I sampled 9 seasonal ales. Due to the limitations of our local bottle shop, we had to stray from our initial plan of trying all the Oregon winter ales that are commonly available in six packs. The beers we sampled were:

• Big Sky – Powder Hound
• Cascade Lakes – Santa’s Little Helper
• Deschutes – Jubelale
• Dogfish Head – Chicory Stout
• Full Sail – Wassail
• Lost Coast – Winterbraun
• New Belgium – 2 Below
• New Belgium – Frambozen
• Rogue – Santa’s Private Reserve

Here are my quick tasting notes for each beer, along with our rankings and thoughts. The beers were drank half blind; my wife and I trading off pouring duties.

Big Sky – Powder Hound

• Appearance – Dark, reddish highlights, tan head.
• Smell – Sweet, malty. Little hop presence.
• Taste – Sweet brown sugar/caramel, low bitterness, nothing real “wintry.”

Cascade Lakes – Santa’s Little Helper

• Appearance – Cola brown, thin head.
• Smell – Sweet with an alcohol tinge.
• Taste – Sweet caramel malts, bitter finish.

Deschutes – Jubelale

• Appearance – Caramel color, foamy brown head, good carbonation.
• Smell – Brown sugar, citrus, spicy.
• Taste – Sweet fruity flavor, hoppy finish with mild bitterness, slight alcohol warmth.

Dogfish Head – Chicory Stout

• Appearance – Almost black, very opaque, dirty brown head.
• Smell – Strong coffee smell, caramel malts, fruit.
• Taste – Roasted coffee, sweet finish with surprisingly low bitterness.

Full Sail – Wassail

• Appearance – Cola colored with dark red highlights, tan foamy head.
• Smell – Sweet malty smell, piny hops.
• Taste – Sweet caramel, maybe a little toffee, hoppy finish.

Lost Coast – Winterbraun

• Appearance – Cloudy cola color, amber highlights, thin tan head.
• Smell – Roasted malts, alcohol presence.
• Taste – Sweet roasted malts, chocolate, small hop finish, no alcohol taste.

New Belgium – 2 Below

• Appearance – Golden straw color, white head, tight carbonation.
• Smell – Strong pine smell, bready yeast.
• Taste – Big hop taste, more citrus than pine, sweet finish.

New Belgium – Frambozen

• Appearance – Deep red, reddish-tan head.
• Smell – Malty, fruity.
• Taste – Tart upfront, strong berry flavor, sweetens at finish.

Rogue – Santa’s Private Reserve

• Appearance – Ruby red.
• Smell – Big hop smell, piny.
• Taste – NW red taste, piny hops, strong bitter finish. Nothing winter about it.

Kevin’s Rankings

1. Jubelale – A perennial favorite. This year’s Jubelale tastes a little fruitier than the last couple and the bitterness has been toned down a bit. There is still a big hop presence, and the same refined taste I have come to expect from Deschutes.
2. Chicory Stout – Rich coffee flavors packed into a thin stout. If you are familiar with DH’s Indian Brown Ale, think of Chicory Stout as it’s big, coffee drinking brother.
3. Wassail – A great example of a NW winter ale. A big well blended malt profile upfront with a hop punch at the end.
4. Winterbraun – I love Downtown Brown and Winterbraun is a beefed up reincarnation. Maybe not the most wintry of ales, but definitely enough alcohol presence to make it a warmer.
5. Santa’s Private Reserve – A doubled up version of St. Rogue Red. A fine example of a big NW Red, but it feels out of place as a seasonal.
6. Frambozen – I had high hopes for this one, but the tartness seems slightly out of place on top of the brown ale. The berry flavor was good, but I still prefer the sweeter Raspberry Brown from Lost Coast.
7. 2 Below – Out of the beers we tasted, this one takes the “doesn’t smell at all like it tastes” award. The dry-hopping gave it a big piny smell, but the taste was very citrus. I didn’t feel that there was enough of a malt back bone to support the hops and sugar-sweet finish.
8. Santa’s Little Helper – I wonder if they based this one off their 20″ Brown. It tasted very similar, maybe slightly spicier. Forgettable as a winter ale.
9. Powder Hound – Another example of a completely average beer that does nothing to definite itself as a winter ale. This one tastes like an amber, period.

Tiffany’s Rankings

1. Wassail – Really good, another example of what I like about Full Sail. Good balance of all the things I like about NW beers.
2. Chicory Stout – Maybe my new favorite stout (but Oatis is delicious also) – the powerful coffee flavor was great. The Chicory felt the most “wintery” on the list to me; rich, dark and comfortable.
3. Santa’s Private Reserve – True to the Rogue taste. Not so seasonal as I would hope, but still an excellent beer.
4. Jubelale – Lots of flavors going on, refreshing. I had a hard time deciding whether I like this one or the Private Reserve better.
5. Winterbraun – Not as good as Downtown Brown, but worthy.
6. Santa’s Little Helper – Nothing special. This beer left little impression on me.
7. Frambozen - Not remarkable either. It was fruity, so I guess that was novel, though not really what I think of when I imagine a “winter ale.”
8. Powder Hound – Generic. Not bad, not good – just beer.
9. 2 Below – Generally bad in my book. I tasted the 2 Below blind and my initial comment on this flavor catastrophe was “I do not know what this is, but I do not like it,” which pretty much sums the experience up as far as I’m concerned. Apparently my facial expression spoke fairly loudly as well. If I had to grade it, I would fail it, and write a note home to it’s mother.

This group of beers really fall into two categories; those that are hop driven and those that are malt driven. 2 Below, Wassail, Jubelale and Santa’s Private Reserve are all very hop heavy ales. The rest had very little hop presence, Winterbraun being the most hoppy of the group. I think it is interesting that both Wassail and Jubelale were near the top of both our lists. I think these two ales are among the finest examples of well hopped winter warmers.

Like I mentioned before, in a few weeks we will be performing round 2 of our Winter Ale Taste-Off. I will be posting our list in the near future and asking for input.

Cheers!
Kevin