Monteith's Winter Ale
Monteith's Brewing Co.

 

Initial appearance was promising: a deep tea coloured black with a rapidly dispersing head. Not much aroma except a bit of malt and certainly no cinnamon. The cinnamon is there, though, when you taste it. Nicely balanced malt and spice but ruined by the 6% ABV. It's way too hot! It's like taking a good interesting beer and sticking an alcohol swab in your mouth while drinking it. I nearly couldn't finish it which is a shame because everthing else fit together well and the cinnamon was perfectly balanced. I really wanted to like this but now I won't have it again. At 5% ABV I might.

Monteith's Winter Ale

A = Pours a dark mahogany with a thin foam head. Looks very drinkable.

S = Smells of wet rag. Damp damp wet rag.

T = Very watery in my opinion. Initial roast malt flavour with a slight hint of dark chocolate. The bottle says that there is a bit of cinnamon in it. But I can't taste it. There is also a very dry finish.

M = A little too much carbonation for an ale of this style. Hurts my tongue.

D = Not drinking it again.

Pours deep clear mahogany with ruby highlights when held up to the light. Compact, slightly creamy beige tan head which receded to a thin coating but laced well. Aroma is malty with a little sourness and a slight hint of cinnamon. Something not quite right in there that I can't identify. Taste is dominated by a dry finish with dark chocolate roasted grain notes. Residual bitterness is detected at the back of the tongue and the roof of the mouth, but no hop character is evident. Carbonation is light giving a medium to heavy mouth feel, however there is a distrubing almost causting drying to the finish. Not one I will by trying again.