Winter Warmer Ale
Hard Knox Brewery

 

16 ounce can.
Pours a dark brown with a slight reddish tinge, finger of tan head.
Smells strikingly of vanilla, nutty on caramel malt base - a bit of dark fruit, spice (though I do not get much of the ginger).
Taste buds are struck by the vanilla bean, caramel malt, again a nutty and winter spice flavour; minimal hoppy bitterness.
Creamy smooth medium full mouthfeel on moderate carbonation, leaving with a vanilla spice sweetness.

473ml can - made with ginger and vanilla. Funny how I'm drinking this on the warmest day in February, so far, that is.

This beer pours a clear, dark orange-brick brown colour, with three fingers of puffy, rocky, and chunky beige head, which leaves some stellar webbed lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of those vanilla cookies I had when I was a kid, bready and doughy caramel malt, subtle candied ginger, a bit of bruised pome fruitiness, and some ethereal earthy, musty, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy cereal malt, gently spicy ginger root, vanilla ice cream, baked red apples, some damp minerality, and more well-understated leafy, herbal, and dead floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-pleasing frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and mostly smooth, with maybe the ginger heat competing with a rising airy creaminess at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the vanilla confection character bearing the lingering load.

Overall - wow, as far as seasonal 'warmers' go, this is one flavourful offering - the vanilla shines, and the ginger plays a (thankfully) dutiful second fiddle. Winter has certainly come, and outstayed its welcome, so at least I have this sort of thing to play the part of actual 'cold' comfort, eh?