Ardelle Christmas Ale 2010
People's Brewing Company

Pours brown with a ruby tint and a bit of head leaving no lacing.

Smells of raisins and figs with some nutmeg and a bit of sourness.

Initial flavors follow the smell. Raisins, figs and other dark fruit along with a hint of sour. Kind of weird. Not overwhelmingly sour and the slight tartness doesn't really fit with the rest of the profile.

Medium mouthfeel and carb.

This one didn't do it for me. With this base, the slight funk doesn't work. The base beer may be good and it may be good if more sour, but as it is, doesn't work for me.

This has proven to be one of my favorite peoples brews thus far. For the malt profile, this is very high on the session beer list. It pours a hazy raisin brown with large carb bubbles. The nose is of sweet raisins and slightly tart funk the follows through to the palate for a good session beer. The cherry added a nice sour from the culutures of lacto on the skin. It was an interesting out-side-of-the-box beer. Good job Peoples.

Had on tap...

A- Pours a brown color. No real head came to me on this beer. It didn't produce any lacing at all either except for some light spots that slid back into the beer.

S- This is a malty beer for sure. Light chocolate malts come into play with some amber caramel malts. Hints of smoke play along with a nice refreshing tart cranberry. Strong hints of vinegar run through this beer as well which I expceted given the style.

T- Vinegary upfront on this beer mixes with a light almost caramel like malt infused with light chocolate notes. I was surprised the cranberry took as long as it did to come around which it finally started toward the middle of the beer. A faint hint of smoke comes along with this beer right about where the cranberry picks up. Begian yeast flavors were hinted at toward the ending of the beer which I didn't mind at all. The cranberry made a second apperance though coming through with a light tartness in the backend.

M- Medium mouthfeel. Carbonation is good for the style. Malty cranberry vinegar is left on the palate. Aftertaste is tart cranberries, puckery vinegar, and belgian malts with hints of faded alcohol. Beer itself was balanced well for what it was. No real off flavors at all. Heavy drying on the palate from the alcohol.

D- The beer was drinkable and well pretty good. A interesting take on this style with the cranberries added to it. The ABV was not bad at all for this beer. The heavy drying on it most of the time from the alcohol kind of dragged this beer out when it would have been easy to drink otherwise.

Billed a "Flemish Brown," which I've always been told is a less intimidating way of saying "Oud Bruin." It was described, at the brewpub, as a Belgian Brown with a little bit of sourness to it. It's brewed with cranberries and--adorably--is named after the brewmaster's grandmother.

So since it's Flemish and brewed with cranberries, I thought it was going to be violently tart. Instead, it's just like a malty, lightly spicy Belgian with a little kiss of cranberry tartness at the back.

It's solid. If it were just being sold as a Belgian Brown I probably wouldn't like it as much. What makes it borderline exceptional is that, unlike your typical dark and malty winter ale, this one really tastes like Christmas.