Stone Cat Winter Ale
Ipswich Ale Brewery

Expecting a much better head but it barely lasted, no lace. Very dark ruby color. Mouthfeel is a little thin and was expecting a more spicy wintery flavor but if you stick with the schwarzbier definition - "dark brown to black. Medium body. Roasted malt evident. Low sweetness in aroma and flavor" then this is it.

 

12 oz brown bottle with no freshness date.

Appearance: Awesome looking head, even when it drops down it stays at around a ½ inch … lacing sticks all over the place as well. Dark chestnut brown colour is deep and inviting.

Smell: Good amount of ripe fruit and a cookie like maltiness in the nose. Faint floral and herbal hop and some lightly toasted notes also. Grape candy and faint chocolate as well.

Taste: Maltiness is solid but a little to monotone, roasted flavour adds a bitter finish. Lightly hopped, clean with very little yeast flavour. A ghost like grape taste from some Munihc malt perhaps and a puckering dry finish.

Mouthfeel: Nice rounded crispness ... very smooth within the medium body.

Drinkability & Notes: A decent stab at the Schwarzbier style and certainly a style you don't see that often either. Worth the try, at least a six pack.

The beer is a very dark brown color and appears almost black away from the light. A nice tan colored heads sits on top and is slow to dissolve to a sheet on the surface which remains through the entire serving. Little to no lace is found on the glass. A faint aroma of chocolate and roasted malt hovers over the beer. The flavor of this near medium bodied beer begins with milk chocolate and moves to a somewhat bitter roasted malt taste. It finishes with a hint of hops and leaves a dry malty taste behind.

I thought this beer's roasted malt flavor was good and would go well with a nice steak or chocolate dessert.

Dark color, deep brown/near black. Small, toasted, creamy head. Aroma of deep coffee and espresso notes, nice roastiness that follows on the palate. Medium body. Warm greeting of hops on the tongue, and a full ballast of smooth malt. Bit of an awkward finish, with an odd metallic tinge. Carbonation seems high, too. A passable ale, but among the lesser ranks of winter brews. Actually, the site calls it a schwarzbier, and the label says it's a winter ale. Which is it?
Thanks to UncleJimbo, for passing this one on!