Ol' Saint Nick
Block 15 Brewing - Southtown Tap Room

 

Canned 10/22/25. Pour is dark brown with a quickly fading head. Aromas are light and mostly yeasty / bready aromas. Taste is malty with a measure of hops. Feel is well developed and the carbonation holds up. Smooth and enjoyable start-to-finish. The 9% ABV hides very well with all that malt goodness, so beware!

Dark brown but clear. Gentle malt and fruit scent. Notable ethanol. Stout-like malt flavor. Not a lot of hop or bitterness. Not much fruit or spice flavor.

Taster at Loyal Legion. Darker amber, small head, but sticky lacing. Aroma is candy sugar and caramel. Taste adds some piney hops to the malts, a bit sweet, a bit bitter. Doesn’t seem strong....

16oz can

Pours over a finger of light brown head into my snifter. Retention is average and the head fades within a minute or two. Lacing is very faint. Body is a deep brown with hues of mahogany. Looks ok.

Nose hits first and foremost with a firm fruit character, mostly figs and other sweet stone fruits, but some tart raspberries linger as well. Toffee is noticeable, as well as a nice touch of piney hops. Doesn’t smell quite as hoppy as I’d like this style to be, but it’s a very very nice nose regardless.

Flavor is pretty rich, there is a large dose of stone fruit. Malty, but not many distinguishable flavors, over time some faint toffee comes out in the finish. Pretty significant alcohol presence, it’s not overwhelming but it is distracting. A good flavor, but a little rough around the edges, and incomplete.

Carbonation is light but not thin by any means. Despite its rich flavor, this is not remotely cloying, and the body drinks fairly light. Palate is incredibly smooth until the finish when the alcohol and some bitterness hit. Once you get used to the slightly sharp finish, the mouthfeel is pretty enjoyable.

All things considered, the drinkability isn’t too bad.

Overall it’s a big beer with some good flavors and a pretty nice mouthfeel, but it’s missing some of the hoppier and deeper malt notes to make it really shine.

Look: Blood red on the pour and looks brown in the glass while a silky tan head quickly forms and recedes to a lid, leaving an almost painted-like coating behind
Aroma: Dried and fresh plums, warm brown bread, caramel, oranges, light earthiness, wafts of chocolate, a little ethanol, and toffee
Taste: Kicks off with a huge wave of bready malt and citrus before being joined or rather hit with nice, sweet caramel and toffee. A little cocoa and light earthiness are noticed when the initial hit subsides and plums are quite evident throughout as well. Closes with bread, plums, toffee, and a little alcohol heat
Mouthfeel: Full, smooth – almost silky, medium-high carbonation, and a soft and smooth finish
Overall: This is delicious. I haven’t seen this beer packaged in years – since the 500mL bottle days – and didn’t know they still made it until this landed in my lap as a surprise birthday gift from my co-worker and so of course was excited and rightfully so. A really tasty winter warmer ale that has a lot of depth, is well-made, tasty and has that ‘big winter ale’ type ABV that can be tasted as well as felt. Perfect for these cold winter nights

 

 

L: Reddish brown body, caramel colored head
S: Sweet and alcoholic. Caramel, cherry, fig, hops, a hint of chocolate.
T: Hoppier than the nose. A big blast of hops and dark fruit, mostly plum, then citrus, then caramel, then cherry and a touch of oak, and cracker and bread on the finish.
F: Moderate carbonation. Starts smooth, grows slightly stingy on the tongue, then smooths out again on the finish. Nice warming feeling as well.
O: The best winter warmer I’ve had. A good level of complexity in the body, and a great mouthfeel.

Clear dark chestnut red-brown with long-lasting foam in the IPA glass. Warm with just enough sugar and a long roasted malt taste. None of the usual buttery stuff, this is clean and rich with a bright green hoppy edge. Moderate bitterness to shore up the sweet stuff. Reminds me of the Animal Cookies IPA but malted up.

This is a pleasant surprise. I was expecting more xxx but it's highly sippable and not over-done in any aspect. From the 16 oz can dated 11/03/21.

 

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a medium to dark reddish orange with a fine, one finger light khaki head with great retention and solid lacing. Aroma of lightly caramel and pale malt, sweet bread, light stone fruit and a little citrus and honey. Flavor is dry caramel malt, citrus hops, dark and light stone fruit, orange citrus and nuts. An unexpected grassy hop bitterness in the finish. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess. My last winter warmer for the year and an unexpected winner. This is the most caramel forward warmer I can remember, which won my heart right from the beginning. There is a nice bready, fruity character that is reminiscent of fruit cake. Then hops pop up and finish with a surprise lingering bitterness. Seems kinda busy, but was really enjoyable and festive tasting. This is one of my favorite winter warmers yet and I hope it is a seasonal in the Seattle market (never seen it before, although Block 15 seems well distributed here). I may have liked this more than others because I'm a big fan of caramel in ales; this totally came together for me. Hoppy holidays past!

16 oz. single can from Lifesource Natural Grocers in Salem OR
$3.79
9% alc. this year.
Pours a nice clear darker amber colour with a nice creamy looking tan head.
Aromas of toffee, fudge, hazelnuts, coffee, and a bit of citus.
Taste has all that is in the aroma. But finishes with a small hoppy bite.
Mouth feel is medium and well carbonated. Some obvious alcohol in the end. But its not too bad.
A nice winter warmer..but quite strong for the style

 

 

 

 

First had: on tap at their brewpub

Poured a murky, dark orange-brown, with a patchy beige head. Aroma of cinnamon and spice. Taste was big on the booze up front, spicy mid-palate with nutmeg and clove, a dusting of cocoa powder, subtle fruity notes, leafy, with a very dry finish. Medium-bodied, and nicely drinkable all around. Very good winter beer.

FYI: I'm not positive on the abv, but I know it's over 9%. The owner, Nick, doesn't label some of his bigger beers by style. This beer tastes like a double red to me, but what do I know?

Appearance- A vigorous pour from my growler into my goblet produces a solid finger in head that has a soft khaki color. The head doesn't last too long, but leaves solid lacing in it's wake. The lacing splatters like a Jackson Pollock the rest of the way. I love the dense, murkiness of this beer. The color is mahogany with apricot highlights that squeeze their way through the bottom and top.

Smell- While the head's hanging around, I get a bunch of sweet, juicy, sugary hops. Pineapple and tangerine are first with some spicy mango and piny hops thrown in the mix as well. I know he used more than a few hop varieties, and they show up early in the nose. As I get into the beer, the nose becomes much more malt forward, smelling much like a really good double red. Waves of caramel, sweet bread dough, and some bubble gum (from the yeast possibly?) take over the hops, proving this isn't a DIPA. It's a very nice smell, but I wish the hops would stay as the main focus.

Taste- I don't know exactly what I'm tasting most of the time with this beer. There's an excellent sugary sweetness that runs throughout, and a bit of heat at the finish. There's also a good dose of fruity hops with a bit of spicy hop backing, sweet caramel and doughy malts. There might even be a splash of chocolate lingering in the finish. You can tell there's a good variety of both hops and malts, which make this beer a joy to drink.

MF- Medium carbonation with a medium-full body. Only after my second pint do I start to feel any wear on my tongue. If I had to nitpick, I guess the body could be a bit fuller, but I don't know what style this is going for and I don't really mind a slightly thinner feel (and it's not THAT thin) that increases the drinkability...

Drinkability- Quite drinkable for the abv. I have had to cut myself off from this beer at the brewpub quite a few times knowing that I have to drive. I really hope Nick starts bottling some of his offerings soon like he said he's going to so that I can share some local love.