Full Sail Wassail
Full Sail Brewing Company

 

 

Excellent winter warmer. Caramel malt is the most noticeable aspect, with a very slight hop finish. Not much in the way of spice, but just an excellent beer for when it starts getting colder out.

Winter warmers are my favorite seasonal beers by far, and I put this one in my top 5 if that helps.

12 oz poured into a tulip
Look: Dark brown with lightness around the edges. Holding up the light, a beautiful ruby. Barely any head. A light brown quickly dissipated. 4.75, would be 5 if there was more of a head
Smell: Sweet, Fruit, gets better as it warms. Malty, hint of toffee, chocolate
Taste:Starts sweet and fruity, raspberries, but turns slightly bitter. The finish is like a nice black tea.
Feel: watery and a bit bubbly. More than expected with the lack of head. It coats the mouth nicely
Overall: Excellent beer. Not too heavy, not too light. Good 6 pack for winter into spring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poured into a clear mug.
The appearance was a sturdy semi-dark brown color with a finger's worth of eggshell white foamy head that slid off fairly quick. Some lace ran here and there.
The aroma had some sweet driftwood, caramel/toffee malts, some light earthiness, light dried grass, muted allspice, dried red delicious apples, some light piney hops, black licorice, and ended with a slight sweet rye.
The flavor was mostly sweet with a rolling spicy underneath. Mostly the sweet wood, caramel/toffee malts and allspice in the aftertaste.
The mouthfeel was almost medium bodied with a fair sipping quality about due to the spices showing a touch of harshness running along my tongue. Carbonation felt fine. ABV felt on par. Moderately semi-sweet to pushing spicy sort of finish.
Overall, I can see it as a Winter warmer and also one that I could come back to.

Pours a dark brown color. 1/4 inch head of an off-white color. Decent retention and decent lacing. Smells of sweet malt, rye, slight earthy malt, citrus hops, piney hops, hint of roasted malt, licorice, and slight wood. Fits the style of a Winter Warmer. Mouth feel is smooth and clean, with an average carbonation level. Tastes of roasted malt, sweet malt, hint of citrus hops, slight yeast, piney hops, hint of yeast, hint of cinnamon, hint of pale malt. and slight alcohol. Overall, good aroma, body, blend, and complexity, but only an average appearance.

Poured into a pint glass from a bottle. Pours dark red with a tiny head. Smells of winter spices and roasted grain. Tastes of dark roasted grain and berries, with very slight hop bite. Beer is light bodied and easy drinking, good carbonation. Overall, an above average beer.

 

 

 

 

12 oz bottle with a bottling date of October 2016.

Look: A deep mahogany colored body topped by a weak head. Minimal lacing,
Aroma: spicy, hoppy and malty
Flavor: follows aroma, with less spicing than the aroma suggests. More hops than expected for style (highly variable though it is).

Feel: full body; light carbonation.

 

 

 

Poured from 12oz bottle into a pint glass. The born on date is not printed, but expiration date is 3/17/17 (expires on the best holiday).

L: This beer pours a nice deep burgundy color, with a small tan head that dissipates quickly. A very clear hue with hints of red amongst the otherwise coffee coloring.

S: A very malty aroma. Smells more like crackers and caramel than anything else. Not the best smelling beer, but it resonates with the character that is to be expected from this type of winter beer.

T: While the aroma leaves some to be desired, the taste more than makes up for it. The first taste is very smooth, and malty. A hint of holiday spice, with plenty of caramel and roasted malt flavor to satisfy your winter cravings.

F: The mouthfeel was great. It left a nice, soft, malty coating in your mouth. I feel it would pair nicely with steak and brown gravy sautéed with onions. I am very impressed with what this beer brings to the table.

O: This beer is great in the sense that it isn't packed with all the crazy spice that most winter warmers are. It has the maltiness that really will warm your soul. It is definitely most enjoyed at room temperature or slightly cooler. Give it a good swirl before every drink to really taste what this beer has to offer. A real A+ in this category, if you ask me.

 

Poured from a 12 oz bottle into a pint glass.

Pours a deep mahogany color with reddish grape tints on the edges. A very thin layer of foamy caramel head that dissipates almost immediately.

Nose is of crackers. Some slight lemon, but ever so subtle.

Taste is dominated by cracker. Some spices and a slight lemony flavor as well. Maybe a hint of pepper.

A little fuller in body than expected. Can feel the alcohol in the mouth as well.

 

Dark brown, beige head, 2/3". Aroma was a roasted 2 row and bittering c hops. Pretty nice aroma out of this kind of style beer.

Taste dropped caramel, more bittering C hops, roasted malt, toffee. Good balance, warming alcohol effect. Stays away from the holiday spice rack, its only there in minor amounts. Some chocolate and dark fruit bitterness to round out the complex journey, does nothing excellent, but nothing below average/good either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried both aggressive and moderate pours with this one. The aggressive pour overflowed a shaker pint just a bit, with about a 2 inch head. The head is a cream color with a creamy texture. The beer is a dark yellowish-brown, tinged red, with moderate carbonation. It is rich and dark in low evening light.

The aroma is rather neutral, but hints at the maltiness within. The flavor is complex, slightly sweet, rather dry on the finish. The base is a complex maltiness, with a good deal of bitterness of an earthy or somewhat raw nut character. A complex of bitter flavors lingers in the finish, accentuating a cherry character not immediately noticeable.

This beer took awhile to appreciate. I was glad to note the lack of spices, but yet it managed to impart the same sort of character of a subtly spiced holiday beer. A worthy entrant to the Christmas melange.

 

Nice and meaty English ale, dark copper colored with small creamy beige head. Light nutty aroma, flavor is more earthy, nutty, dark malts with a small hops bite at the end. Some lingering bitterness. Would not be out of place in a British pub next to the fire....

 

 

 

 

Poured from bottle into a pint glass

Appearance – The beer pours a deep brownish mahogany color with a small tan colored head. The head fades very fast leaving just a little bit of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.

Smell – The aroma of the brew is rather strong of a sweet fruity smell of a dark fruit nature. The aroma is heaviest of some raisin and plum mixed with some other sweeter caramel aromas as well. Along with these smells comes some spice of nutmeg and a bit of nutmeg. Some lighter roasty smells as well as a little bit of a toast are there as well, creating a sweet and lightly roasty winter warmer smell.

Taste – The taste begins much drier than anticipated from the nose. It begins with just a bit of dark fruit flavors of raisin and plum with some light caramel mixed within. Along with these tastes, are some rather roasty flavors of dark toasted bread. As the taste advances, the roastiness increases a bit with some coffee notes coming to the tongue. All the while, the sweet fades some, with some spice flavors of nutmeg and clove taking their place. In the end, with the sweet fading, the spice and roast increasing, and the oncoming of a little bit of an earthy taste, one is left with a somewhat, drier, and darker spiced flavor to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the beer is on the slightly thinner side for a winter warmer with a carbonation level that is average. A thicker body may have helped with the lighter sweetness and darker flavors of the brew accentuating them more, but overall the feel was OK.

Overall – A rather decent winter warmer. It didn’t have a huge sweetness or a huge booziness, like most winter warmers have; which was rather nice. It was in some ways too easy drinking and a little bland for