Jubilation Spiced Ale 2008
Grand River Brewing

Bottle thanks to my friend John- A transparent rusty orange pour with a thin white head. Nose of orange peel,some apricot, cinnamon, candied malts, black pepper, some clove. Overall the aroma is really inviting. Tastes of sweet spicy goodness. Cinnamon, sweet citrus rind, some clove, candy caramel malts, a smidge of some spiced rum, and I detect the jelapenos towards the end. Medium body, full on flavour. Nice spicy finish. Another winner from a great brewer.

On cask at Volo.

Pours a very slightly hazed golden yellow, very thick bone white head forms, nice and creamy, lace spirals on the glass, good retention, settles to a solid ring and layer. Smell is neat, sweet and sugary, lots of biscuit and bready malt, some honey, light spicing, nutmeg and cinnamon, touch of vanilla, very malty aroma. Taste is nice too, malty at first, quite sweet, brown sugar and toast, some biscuit and honey, cinnamon/clove/nutmeg, nicely balanced spice, nice peppery finish in the throat from the jalapenos. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied, quite thick, with soft low carbonation. Pretty smooth stuff, the spicing is nice, but maybe a touch too sweet for my liking, still a great winter warmer.

Cask pint at C'est What?. Similar appearance and nose to last year, which is a good thing. The spicing in the flavour has changed fairly considerably, allowing rich citrus notes to become more apparent. thats not to say the spicing has disappeared - I'm now picking up a lot of cinnamon, some cloves, perhaps even ginger. There's also a very slight vegetal heat, which I'm informed is from jalapeno peppers (ay caramba!). Some mineral notes also. The finish is fairly dry, which I find to be common in spiced beer. Quite different from last year, but excellent in every repsect.

I also grabbed this at Volo on tap. Still a great beer, but far better on cask if you can find it.

Bottled Dec 23, 2008.

A: Golden-bronze with a slightly off-white head; thin ring of retention, slight lacing.

S: Plenty of cloves, orange rind, a little cinnamon and some ginger-like spiciness.

T: It's quite spicy with flavours of cloves, cinnamon & some jalapeño that's peppery and a little ginger-like (I couldn't quite place it, but hunted down what the brewer had to say). Biscuity malt, vanilla, candied fruit & orange rind round out the Christmas cake flavours, though I wouldn't mind some slightly darker malt flavours here. There's a good bitterness and the alcohol is subtle.

M: Well-attenuated moderate body has a dry finish.

D: Initially I wasn't overly fond of the spicing, but it did grow on me, and before I knew it, the bottle was gone.

Posted by the Brewer (Rob Creighton) in a local forum:

"Last years Jubilation was a combination of cinnamon and cardamom and was very intense. The 1 yr old keg served at Volo Cask Days really saw some improvement with time.

This years version reflects a recipe Bob had at home for Christmas cake that had cranberry's, oranges cut in half and spiked with cloves, demerara sugar, cinnamon and get ready for it...jalapeno peppers in it. The LCBO gave us the 5.7% but personally, I don't believe it. I have doubted a number of our recent results and the malt/sugar input combined with the attenuation tells me 6.5%. Try it for yourself and see. I don't have any equipment here yet to verify alcohol. Our heavy water mineral content and bigger body have generally masked the higher alcohols well but I think this could be dangerous. Salut!"

Picked up 6 500ml bottles at the brewery, with a bottle date indicating it was bottled yesterday. Poured with a decent head, moderately dissipating with some lacing. Smell was not strong but indicated some spice. Taste immediately reminiscent of gingerbread with a soft mouth feel. Not heavily carbonated and very drinkable. My first try from Grand River, and I'm quite impressed.

Enjoyed at Volo. This is an entirely different formulation than last year. Something between a pumpkin and a winter warmer, it pour an opaque yellow with a bit of head and lots of lace. There is an initial whiff of kitchen spice rack on pouring, and then more modest aroma. A medium mouthfeel of nutmeg, cinammon and cardomon, with a finish of hop bitterness that builds up as you drink it. Carbonation is average and appropriate, not getting in the way.