Schell's Snowstorm 2019
August Schell Brewing Company

 

Appearance: Pours a clear, deep amber color with a strong off-white head. SRM of 16-17. (4.00)

Aroma: Strong amber caramel malts. Then some vanilla, white bread & cream that blends into a vanilla cream. (3.75)

Flavor: Flavor follows with strong caramel, vanilla & cream malt. Some alcohol comes through for an alcoholic vanilla burn. Overall very caramel though and similar to Bell's Amber. (3.75)

Feel: Medium-body with light to moderate carbonation. Finishes with a slight alcoholic burn with vanilla & caramel left on the tongue. (3.50)

Compared to Bell's Amber 5/1/20: Pours similar color. Aroma and flavor has slightly more vanilla and less orange citrus. Slightly more alcoholic burn and flatter. Otherwise very similar. Winner: Bells

Overall: A really nice-to-standard Amber Ale. I don't think this one is lighter that other's have described, but I think it is brewed to style. Nice caramel and vanilla notes. It drinks very similar to Bell's Amber with slightly more vanilla and less orange citrus. A little bit of alcoholic burn, but otherwise on-point. (Final Rating: 3.74)
Drinks similar to Schell's Bock

Poured from a can into a pint glass. Pours red orange with a fluffy white head. Smells of sweet caramelized grain with some fruitiness. Tastes of caramelized grain with berry and caramel notes. Beer is light bodied and very easy drinking with good carbonation. Overall a very good beer.

 

Snowstorm 2019 pours a dark amber color, with a small, but long lasting head. Smooth, yet rich sweet sugary aroma. Flavor is smooth, sugary sweet, but with a nice hop bite to provide some bitter finish. Good body and feel. Overall, very smooth, nice flavors, well balanced.

 

I am very happy that Schell's went in this direction for the 2019 Snowstorm instead of another lackluster Belgian style ale. Very drinkable with a solid toasty malt base and some citrus hops to balance the beer.

 

This is a great second-string beer for the evening. Not a WOW! but a really good beer for its style and price. Nice caramel aroma and taste with some leather and clove...some graham flavor too. A great fall seasonal ale. This is a great fallback...I could drink these anytime. Recommend :)

 

12oz can. Stamped on can bottom is '032620 049877'.
Clear, deep amber colored body. Thin finger of bright off white, dense head, which sticks around. Leaves behind an extensive pattern of lacing on the drinking side.
Subtle aroma of toasted malt, with a touch of sweeter fruit hops and pine.
Taste is more expressive, with toasted malts joined by the fruity hops which later turn to a grapefruit pith. Has some bitterness but more like citrus peel than piney. Has a mineral note. The sweetness is not present in the extended after taste, which is quite malty.
Thicker mouth feel, with a real bite. Very good carbonation.
Matches well with cold and windy weather, the day after our first real snowstorm of the season. Not much in the smell but the flavors really work while sitting in a comfortable chair before a warming fire.

So weird opening this up from a can for the first time. It just didn’t feel right.

White head. Lace. More of a copper than an amber red.

A lot of hops show. Piney, earthy, and resiny. A bit sticky. Caramel and bready malts. A really nice balance. Medium bodied with a nice bitterness.

One of the better snowstorms out of the past few years.

August Schell Snowstorm 2019 (as I “enjoy” another epic day of homebrewing).

Pours a golden-amber in color, topped with an off white head. Good lacing, even in my dirty pilsner glass.

Lightly sweet, bready nose, with nary a hop to spoil the malty goodness. A juice bomb this ain’t, but there are faint, lighter notes of ripe pear and cherry.

Smooth and lightly carbonated, gently covering the tongue and palate. A nicely biting bitterness at the end... plenty to balance out the malt focus.

Overall it’s an agreeable, likely “sessionable” offering in time for the holiday season, and a complete stylistic throwback to an era where Amber ales practically dominated the specialty and import aisles of the dust old packies I used to haunt.

Cheers!

A little charged up on the pour..drinks like an old school red ale from years ago. Caramel malts blend nicely with the grassy/piney hop bill. Nice little jagged bitterness on the finish. Really comes together nice. almost forgot what beers like this tasted like what with the sweet hazy IPA fad. Nice to have this available.

Starts out with a nice smooth just slightly sweet malt. next there is berry flavor. I'm not sure what type of berry it is. Is the berry flavor a sweet grapefruit? almost but not quite. Then it turns bitter with citrus/pine hop notes.

I like this beer and will be buying another 6 pack. It is not a beer you drink all night, one and done for the day. But it is interesting enough to want more in the future.

 

Pours a dark, malty colour with a frothy head that lasts. Nose is fruity/slight IPA. Taste is malty with a grapefruit flavour underlying, feels carbonated on the tongue and finishes bitter.

Poured from a can into a tulip.

Pours a slightly chill-hazed amber/red with an outstanding off-white three-fingered pillowy head.

The aromas are fairly malt-forward, as anticipated, with some caramel and slightly-toasted character. As the brew warms, some bready/yeasty notes arrive. Hints of floral and earthy hops in the background. Some metallic and mineral notes manifest as the brew warms. The brew smells fine, but is subdued.

The brew is less malt-skewed on the palate than it was on the nose, and packs more flavor than aroma. Although caramel malts are the first flavor to hit the tip of the tongue, grassy and earthy hop flavors arrive in mid-stream before hints of citrus and pine clean up at the finish. The brew lacks clarity of flavors, as the "malts" and the "hops" are just general categories, without any particular flavor that sticks out. That said, the balance on this brew is solid. Like the nose, some metallic and mineral qualities expand as the brew warms.

The brew is solidly medium, but well-carbonated, and has a nice drying finish.

This is another solid Schell brew that delivers some excellent balance. If the flavors were a little less muddled, it would graduate to the next level from "solid." Well worth a try, however.

Unbelievably dense off -white head that settles out very, very slowly. Largely clear amber red body.
With the dense head the aroma is tough to capture. Sweet and clean malt flavor with a building bitterness that finishes strong but builds slowly on the way there. Hop flavor is a grassy quality but it works nicely. Not much fruit or citrus, maybe a little grapefruit at the end. Drinks close to a lager, as it has a bit of a clean finish.
My palette is a little off currently. But this fits the tradition of a heavier winter drink but not so big as to prevent having a few.
Update: My goodness this warms up nicely. I've had this experience with Snowstorm before, in that temperature makes a big difference. The richness of the malt shows forth and blends nicely with the hops. Nothing overdone, well balanced and the flavors work well together.