Leaves Of Grass Series V: Song Of The Open Road
Bell's Brewery - Eccentric Café & General Store

12 oz. bottle. Deep amber. Smells of nutty malts and toffee. Aggressive grassy hops. Tastes much the same. Strong toffee and caramel. Strong hop bitterness. Slick mouthfeel and medium heavy. They captured the English malt profile very nicely. Surprisingly bittered, though. It's about as good as I expected a winter warmer to be. Which is to say that I liked having it once, but I'd be surprised if I went for it again.

12 ounce bottle into IPA glass, bottled on 1/10/2020. Pours very murky dark ruby reddish/brown color with a 1 finger dense and rocky khaki head with great retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount streaming carbonation. Aromas and flavors of big caramel, brown sugar, brown bread/crust, toasted biscuit, nuts, raisin, fig, date, mint, wood, peppercorn, citrus peel/rind, pine, light coffee/roast, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast earthiness. Slight touch of vanilla and molasses after the finish. Light-moderate pine, citrus rind, herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery, roasted bitterness on the finish. Medium-plus carbonation and medium-full body; balanced creamy/bready malts, sticky hops, and some resins/rinds in the mouthfeel. Moderate increasing resin dryness, no cloying/astringent flavors. Mild increasing warmth of 8.5%. Very smooth, and outstanding take on an English style example. It feels like US and UK hops (Chinook and Fuggle?) With a nice complex malt backbone and some fruity English yeast that isn't overwhelming. Aged like a champ, as I expected. This is very similar to Deschutes Jubelale, which I prefer with a couple years on it as well.

12 ounce bottle, packaged 01/10/2020. Served in a snifter, the beer pours a reddish/burnt orange color with about an inch tan head that stuck around a while. Also some noticeable floaties with a decent amount of lacing. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like dark fruit, dark bread, caramel and brown sugar. I think the taste is similar to the aroma, but there's also the addition of some earthy/herbal hops, grassy and candied orange flavors. Nice lingering bitterness in the finish, hoppier than I expected for a winter warmer. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's smooth and has a good amount of carbonation. I thought it was a solid overall brew, worth picking up. Just bought some this morning so there's still some on the shelves in some areas. $1.99 for a single bottle.

Malty and thick with lots of floating bits ! A bit bitter, maybe like a black IPA? I like it so far, will revisit after drinking more of it.
2nd one, still like it, love the "thickness" of it. I do taste the brown sugar, feels like molasses :-) Good stuff to drink slowly.

Pours a murky copper brown.
Thin off white head fell fast.
Smells of malt, toffee, hay and hops.
To me it has more of an American Barleywine taste going on.
A touch of warm alcohol notes, and a bit of hop tongue burn.
A bit hoppier for a winter warmer than I was hoping, but it's Bell's.
All of the ingredients seem to get lost in each other.
Not bad, not my favorite "Winter" offering.

Pick this up as of late sucks because I missed number 4. Thankfully still plenty of carbonation actually a crap ton making way for 1/4 inch of frothy tan head. Smells of caramelized bread sweet sugars mild fudge and some hoppy bitterness. Taste of typical old ale fanfare some bitter hops it's like tobacco touch of caramel a smooth finish. Reminds me of old jubilation. Body is quite smooth obituary and medium to heavy. overall quite a good beard nothing really spectacular just a really smooth high-gravity old ale.

 

12 FL OZ bottle
Served in a pint glass

This beer pours a deep rust color with copper highlights. Chunk of yeast are visible. It is topped with an inch of tan head that leaves spotty lacing.

The smell is caramel, cocoa, chocolate.

The taste is caramelized sugar, roasted malt, baking chocolate, and black coffee. It has some bitterness.

Medium bodied with a smooth mouthfeel

I'm just happy this wasn't an overspiced winter warmer. I can see this being good on a cold winter night. It happens to be a hot summer night currently though.

**
07/02/2020

Bottle to snifter. What better time for a Winter Warmer than the scalding heat of July. Kind of joking, but still a welcome change up from the AAL/APA/IPA/Belgian White norms. Bottle date 01/02/2020.

LOOK: dark copper amber color, looks like a touch of haziness, but tough to see in this darker shade. Maize-ish Beige head. One of the more interesting head colors. Excellent retention.
AROMA: Gingerbread, fig newtons, red grape, allspice, brown sugar.
TASTE: dried apples, bread, baking soda. Not nearly as enticing as the Aroma.
FEEL: medium body, good carbonation.

interesting brew. some great points, but there are better winter warmers out there.

**

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm a little late with this one, since it's no longer winter, but I just found it, so sue me.

Pours with a somewhat hazy body, just a tad lighter in color than its predecessor, "To a Locomotive in Winter" but with the same cola brown glow.

This one produces aromas of dark chocolate, fudge, dried cherries, honey, molasses, prunes, leather, tobacco, darkly toasted multigrain bread, walnut, hazelnut, almond, and turbinado sugar.

Decadent and refined, this is a real treat. Definitely a sipper; comes off as a toasty bready cola with hints of dried fruit and nuts. Not as sweet on the palate as the nose.

Not too heavy, but not an amazing texture. Definitely a sipper.

Another great beer from this series. Glad I got a chance to try. Cheers!

Bell's Brewery, Inc. "Leaves Of Grass Series V: Song Of The Open Road"
12 fl. oz. brown glass bottle, "PKG 01/10/2020 PRN 27946". Sampled on 04/23/2020.
$2.99 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: It's poured a murky brown with chestnut colored highlights when held to the light. The head is a finger's width of khaki colored foam. There's plenty of malt in the aroma with notes of chocolate cookies, fudge, caramel, toasted bread, and brown sugar. There's a smear of hops to it as well, and some minor fruitiness. It's quite welcoming. On to the taste, it's much more chocolatey than I thought it would be. It's quite malty and bready with some tastiness to it. Nuttiness follows, as do the more sugary notes. A very firm bitterness balances it lower and brings it to an abrupt stop as some earthy and spicy hop notes arise. Some sweet sugary notes linger but they have to go toe to toe with the bitterness. It lingers like that for a moment and then fades, leaving only a bit of raisin-like fruitiness and spritz of alcohol behind. In the mouth it's medium-full in body, and crisp. I'm quite pleased with this apart from the haziness. It's richly malty but balanced in the end, and fairly complex.
Review #7,000

Poured from a 12oz bottle into a Seidel Mug. Bottled on January 10th 2020.

L: Murky brown in color, half finger tan head has average retention.

S: Dark fruit and caramel like notes are strong.

T: More malty than dark fruit on the tongue, rich flavors, a touch earthy.

F: Medium-full body, crisp, lingering fruit flavor.

O: Quite good.

Pours a dark copper with medium carbonation. Aroma is a little malt with baking spices. Taste is much the same. Not overly spiced but still something to sip through with some booze and malt present.

A - Pours a dark reddish brown with a two finger creamy off white head. Nice amount of soapy lacing.

S - Aroma is rye, toffee, caramel malts and baked brown bread.

T - The taste starts with strong rye upfront followed by caramel malts, candied orange peel, brown bread and a light bitter finish.

M - Medium body with medium carbonation. Creamy mouthfeel with a soft dry finish.

O - Pretty tasty winer warmer. The flavors are had to pinpoint, but tasty nonetheless.