Serving Type: BottleABV: 8.9 percent
Appearance: Lancaster's Winter Warmer pours a dark color, but not as dark as you'd expect it to be. If you look close, it's almost a really deep shade of purple.I never thought I'd actually write purple as a beer's color on this blog. I finally have. If your parents ever gave you Dimetapp medicine as a kid you know the same color I'm talking about. It had a beige and off-white head that doesn't leave much lacing. The carbonation appeared differently than in most brews. There were mini streams of bubbles that trickled upwards in lines.
Smell: The aroma of this beer was pretty complex. There was some sweet caramel ahead of some dark fruits I picked up. I couldn't really classify them until I tasted it. Given the higher ABV I assumed the booziness of this would translate heavily into the smell. Luckily it was masked. I didn't pick up any of it.
Taste: Once again, the first thing I noticed was the sweet caramel. This time I was able to decipher the dark fruits as being raisins and figs. This hit the back of the tongue. A touch of alcohol mixed with the dark fruits on the finish for a nice warming sensation. The alcohol presence wasn't overbearing at all. This is how it should be.
Overall Rating:
This was a really above-average winter beer. I believe this is classified as an Old Ale due to the presence of darker fruits and lack of your expected spice content. The only qualm on my part was the odd color. This is most likely because of the few times I've had an Old Ale. I still would very much like to have another bottle of this beer.
