Gary's Gourd Squash Ale
Central City Brewers + Distillers

 

 

 

 

 

Day 18 of the Parallel 49/Central City advent calendar. 330ml bottle.

Pours a dark brown with orange-red highlights. Half a finger of loose foamy desert tan head that quickly recedes.

Smells like pumpkin pie, sweet dark malt and various holiday spices.

Tastes of more pumpkin pie, sticky caramel, gingerbread cookie, vanilla and faint starchy vegetable. Detectable wood.

Feels soft and sturdy. Body is on the heavy side of medium. Finishes off-sweet. Pie is balanced by wood, malt and veg.

Verdict: Highly recommended. This is just the sort of thing I needed after a nice long winter bike ride. Like a warm hug from a pumpkin pie.

 

 

from the advent calendar, 330ml bottle, nice looking beer dark amber with beige head, nose vanilla - toffee sweetness lite nutmeg-clove spice, taste follows nose with a malt-squash? flavor, smooth body lite carbonation, overall a very balanced smooth drinking-sipping Christmas beer, Very Good!

330ml bottle, day 18 of the 2015 Craft Crossing Calendar, a 'collaborative' effort once again between Parallel 49 and Central City brewing. Seems like more of an autumn offering, but I suppose these kinds of vegetables are part of Christmas too.

This beer pours a mostly clear, dark orange-brick brown colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, loosely foamy, and mildly creamy beige head, which leaves some unknown continental drift lace around the glass as it gently recedes.

It smells of sweet caramel/toffee malt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove spice, vanilla pods, and a faint woody booziness. The taste is grainy, doughy caramel malt, crackery toffee, muddled gingerbread spice, dry vanilla, ethereal, um, vegetal gourd notes, still subtle and generic barrel wood, and some hovering, but not quite alighting alcohol astringency.

The carbonation is fairly weak in its hard to come by frothiness, the body a solid medium-heavy weight, and generally smooth, with a small creaminess evolving with the ambient temperature. It finishes bordering on sweet, the malt and late-arriving steamed squash dealing with the remains of the seasonal spice day.

Overall, a decent brew, especially coming from the boss (not that I'm implying that he's out of touch, or anything of the sort), although the purported squash and barrel essences are understated at best - but I'm hardly complaining, as I'm set for this year in that respect. Pleasantly drinkable, very warming, and more than adequately spiced. So, holiday-friendly? You bet yer ass, it is.

Got this nice surprise out of the 2015 Craft Crossing Calendar. It pours dark ruby with a thick off white beige head that holds up quite well and leaves some intricate lacing. The smell is beyond words. Not sure I have ever got a nose as nice as wat I got out of this one. Toffee, ginger, spices (nutmeg?), vanilla... Wow! The taste is a little similar but not as bold as the smell. Well balanced between the sweetness and the hops. Medium body with average carbonation. This beer is definitely in my top 3 out of this advent calendar so far. I hope they will make it a regular brew!

 

 

330ml bottle from the Phillips Advent Calendar poured into a tulip. Dark ruby complexion with a nice foamy head. Notes of ginger and toffee on the nose. A well balanced beer with the initial sweetness well compensated with a delicate hop profile. Definitely becoming a huge fan of Barrel Aged Ales with Phillips, Central City, and Wild Rose producing some of my favourite beers to date!

Wonderful aroma! Toffee, vanilla, whiskey, faint oak, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg. Central City should definitely make this a seasonal offering.