Winter Wonderham
Rockingham Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent winter warmer! Definitely a style that doesn't rate well overall on BA, but this is on point and deserves a good rating.

 

 

Dark opaque brown with two fingers of tan foam. Christmas baking spices fill the nose, ginger stronger than normal. Taste is much the same, biscuit malts temper slightly. Feel is bready, airy, thin, and somewhat crisp. Solid all around, but short lived and light for style

 

 

From the 650 ml. bottle. Sampled on December 31, 2015.

It is a very nice looking brown-amber pour with a modest cream colored head and reddish hues.

The aroma is sweet malts at first with cinnamon, nutmeg, and other spices. Low to no hops.

Medium body.

The spicy characters really jump forward in the flavor with an almost burning cinnamon and nutmeg sensation.

Bottle from a Lazy Dog
Dark brown with light garnet at the edges and a decent sized frothy off white head that persists. Ginger, and nutmeg or allspice dominate the nose with a fair bit of sweet brown sugary bready caramel to back it up. Flavor follows the aroma quite well sweet maltiness with spices to balance. Medium body with a moderate level of carbonation and a slick light syrupy mouthfeel. Not my favorite style, but this is pretty damn good beer. Nice sipper, I just wish it were a bit colder and snowing..... on second thought, I really don't.

This completely underrated brewery from Derry, NH (also known as the home of both Moonlight Meadery and essential dark beer underdogs Kelsen Brewing) has just released a solid new Winter seasonal in Winter Wonderham. Operating in the "semi-strong spiced Winter ale" style, Winter Wonderham's bottle is adorned with snowflakes and a definitively fantastic, seasonally-apropos, script-ish font-face (the only real difference between any of the brewery's beers usually lies in subtle changes to the "rocking ham" aka pig in a rocking chair and/or slight changes in font; very subtle and I like it!). The description for this one forgoes telling us anything in relation to the beer itself, instead fancying to change up the old Superman adage for colder, more modern times: "Faster than a horse drawn sleigh. More powerful than Old Man Winter. Able to leap gingerbread houses in a single bound. Trust the Pig." After reading that, I instantly picked it up and brought it to the checkout counter. I'm ready for whatever this brewery's got up its sleeve!

This pours a typical fairly-clear(!) dark cola color with a very solid retentive off white head. The smell is of spices (ginger, clove, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon all spring to mind immediately upon first sniff!), deep caramel malt and a distinct nuttiness that likely comes from an English yeast strain. This is so very in line with other classic (and classy) New England Winter Warmers (Harpoon's and SA's Old Fezziwig spring to mind, for reference) from the smell alone that I'm already impressed before even sinking my teeth (tongue?) into it. My first sip is chewy and complex with a lot going on. At first there's a big hit of chocolate and sweet malt before the spices come in.

One of the reasons I love Winter Warmers would be because they truly do feel like one of the most seasonally-appropriate beer styles... even though there are so many, and each brewery does the style very differently, it always feels as though there's a constant undercurrent that keeps the style rooted. Malt-heavy, deeply flavorful and well-spiced tend to be the main criteria and this one doesn't lack for complexity in its spice and malt profile, that's for sure. Continuing on, I get deep, dark, bittersweet chocolate notes and mulling/baking spices with an appropriately warming alcohol character, though it all comes off very soda-like due to mildly-heavy carbonation. Very inviting, drinkable and flavorful though, so far. I usually take issues with drinkability in this style (22 oz format doesn't really help, to be honest), but this is very smooth and palatable.

As it nears room temperature, it becomes a lot less cola-like in terms of general flavor and starts to open up more. A lot more molasses and deep cocoa notes working with strong caramel maltiness to bring together a really cohesive and sticky beer. Hop character generally feels very traditional and true-to-form... probably a lot of Goldings in this one, for instance, to play off the nutty and earthy spices. This is fantastic and another success for Rockingham Brewing Company.