Snow Day
Old Colony Brewing

Poured in a pint glass from a 32oz growler.
L: Dark brown with a tint of red color, minimal cream colored head. No lacings.
S: Took me a long time to finally get a smell from this beer. It is very light scent, but I smelled sweet vanilla, maybe some bourbon?
T: Initial very strong nutmeg taste, then with a bitter, bourbon? aftertaste.
F: Light, very carbonated, dry.
O: Easy to drink, good beer for winter. More on the sweet side, but good.

 

64.oz. growler picked up fresh from the brewery. Poured this a few times into the larger version of the Sam Adams Perfect Pint Glass. Coming out of the growler itself the beer comes out a dirty water brown and hazy. As it pools up in the glass it becomes a dark brown, when held up to the light it has light brown and glowing bronze highlights; you can also still tell it's a little hazy. Light kaki or eggshell white colored head, mostly small bubbles, not much in the way of lacing, a little bit still though. Not a bad looking beer, but it looks more like a Belgian Brown or Winter Warmer than a porter to me.

Tossed around the idea of being a little more critical on the smell of this beer, but bottom line, I really like it, it smells good. It has some nice bread like and cake like sweet grain aromas, more like a sponge or soaked cake or some sort, that type of sweetness. Definitely has plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg added somewhere in this brew, gives it a sweetish aroma of molasses or gingerbread with vanilla added. Can't detect any hop aromas, the other aromas overpower them. Really smells good, especially Christmas time of year.

Same avoided criticisms with the taste. I believe that this beer was intended to taste like this so it's worth throwing OCB a mulligan. Sweet grain flavors like you're biting into a Christmas coffee cake type dessert. There is a good combination of nutmeg upfront then cinnamon. Somewhere in the middle there's a bit vanilla added in. Almost vanilla skewers or beans were left to soak in the liquid. A little bit of an earthy aftertaste that could be from the nutmeg, but I think there's a slightly herbal hoppy flavor in there as well. It all plays together nicely and it's really got a great "Christmas-y" flavor to it.

Mouthfeel is pretty good. Full flavored with a lighter than expected feel, not much of a heaviness to it. Modest carbonation to it, the small bubbles tickle your mouth a little. Has a sweetness to it fallowed by a nice herbal earthiness and goes to a slightly gritty finish. It's really drinkable, I need up having a couple of generously poured glasses throughout the wonderful holiday splitting it with my father in law and brother in law. My main knock on this beer is I think it's more like a winter warmer or some type of brown ale than a porter, but OCB are much more experienced brewers than I am, so I'll let the professionals name their styles, I'll be happy to continue sampling them! Good Christmas beer, I'd get it again if they'd brew it again.