Weihnachtskatze
Alley Kat Brewing Company

Beer Geek Stats
From:
Alley Kat Brewing Company
 
Alberta, Canada
Style:
Herb and Spice Beer
ABV:
6.5%
Score:
Needs more ratings
Avg:
3.68 | pDev: 14.4%
Reviews:
8
Ratings:
8
Status:
Retired
Rated:
Aug 16, 2009
Added:
Mar 01, 2005
Wants:
  0
Gots:
  0
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Photo of hopdog
Reviewed by hopdog from Pennsylvania

2.47/5  rDev -32.9%
look: 2 | smell: 2.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5
Bottle shared courtesy of Josh. Poured a lighter yellow color with a smaller sized white head.

***Gusher Alert***

Some smaller floaters. Aromas of apples, cinnamon, and all ins of other spices. X-Mas candles. Tastes of the same spices and apple fruitiness. Fizzy body.
Aug 16, 2009
Photo of Garin
Reviewed by Garin from Canada (AB)

4.12/5  rDev +12%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
It poured out clear, pale gold with hints of pink. A puffy and effervescent head formed quickly, and dissipated just as quickly. The aromas were easy to detect: cinnamon, honey, and the barest hint of malt. The flavour was lightly sweet, with the aromas of honey and cinnamon blending in with a slight tartness -- excellent balance!

I loved the mouthfeel and body -- light but not thin, clear and cool but not watery. The effervescence made it quite lively to drink. Overall, it's a fantastic braggot. Drinkability, for me, was slowed only by the cinnamon: I like it, but not in large amounts.
Jan 04, 2007
Photo of DrMalt
Reviewed by DrMalt from Canada (SK)

3.97/5  rDev +7.9%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Willow Park (Calgary) begged, borrowed & stole to get a few flats of this seasonal offerring from Alley Kat. Not many left as of this review.

First time I've ever drank a braggot mead. A blend of beer & mead together with some spices.

Poured a 341 ml bottle into a large goblet. Highly carbonated with a fine brilliant white bubble. The head dissipated quickly reminiscent of a mead.

The colour was an opaque somewhat hazy grapefruit pink. Have a home brewed sour cherry mead in the fermenter right now that is identical in colour.

Floral aromas from the honey mixed with the spices of nutmeg or cinnamon?

Flavour is slightly in balance of the honey yet I could detect the malt from the beer. The spices are apparent but well matched with the sweetness from the honey & malt. The spices of nutmeg & cinnamon create a unique flavour that is ideal for a Christmas drink.

Mouthfeel for me was typical of a mead with a lingering acidic taste from the honey.

Truely a Christmas gem! The blend of a lager with honey is unique and further set apart by a seasonal blend of spices that is very reminiscent of Christmas.

Meads at Christmas time is a favourite indulgence of mine (Bushwakker's- Blackberry Mead; Mork's Mead; Spiced Still Mead). I really enjoyed this different style of mead -braggot mead also at Christmas. I would say that for my liking I would prefer it slightly dryer with perhaps a bit higher ABV (8.0%). Possibily by blending with beer it is not so easy to get the ABV that high?

Overall a fine seasonal offering by Alley Kat.
Dec 27, 2006
Photo of vanrassel
Reviewed by vanrassel from Canada (AB)

3.87/5  rDev +5.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
I always like it when breweries try something different, even if the product isn't something I'd run out and buy again. I also like seasonals that are in keeping with the spirit of the season, and Weihnachtskatze (Christmas Kat) definitely had a Christmas-y vibe to it.

Brewed in 2006 as a braggot mead, it looked like a bubbly rosé wine when I poured it into a pint glass, which I definitely wasn't expecting. A compact white head topped an effervescent body with tiny bubbles shooting to the top.

The smell was floral clover with apples and cinnamon. The flavour was in keeping with that, but leaned toward cinnamon and spice as opposed to sweet. The champagne-like body played nicely on the palate and it finished crisp and clean, without much cloying sweetness.

This was a nice alternative to have in the fridge for Christmas entertaining and was a bit of a conversation piece, but I don't think I'd stock it for any other reason.
Dec 27, 2006
Photo of pootz
Reviewed by pootz from Canada (ON)

3.22/5  rDev -12.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5
I'm going from tasting notes I did on this one a few years ago when I bought a case of it for Xmas and couldn't get rid of it at a party I had. ...it poured with a normal look...modest cap clear copper color and moderate lace.

Aromas dominated by spice with a malt undertone, mildly warming character.

Up front it started like a decent dunkel then the spice and hops run away with it and the finish is wet, but bittering with the spices lingering.

An attempt to make a spiced dunkel work and it was a moderate success were it not so sweet.

Medium bodied, sharp mouth feel
Nov 14, 2006
Photo of Orrshow
Reviewed by Orrshow from Canada (AB)

4.04/5  rDev +9.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4
I received this beer as a present from Jim at the Sherbrooke liquor store here in Edmonton. Big thanks for the rare Brew!

Appearance – Pours a deep golden color which almost has brown tones. About one centimeter of fizzy head appears but dissipates quickly into a cap. Small lines of lacing are left on the glass as its goes down.

Smell – Whoa…I poured it, took a seat at my desk, and could catch whiffs from a couple of feet away. This beer smells nothing like I’ve had before. It’s very sweet with so many spices present. I can pick out the cinnamon and ginger in there for sure. Reminds me of Christmas when I was a kid and my mother would be making gingerbread cookies and heating cider on the stove.

Taste – Flavor is very sweet with the exact same hints of spice as in the smell. There is a flavor that reminds me so much of cider. This beer brings warmth when sipped as well which I like. The overall feeling is very nice but this beer does not taste as strong as it smells…which is somewhat disappointing.

Mouthfeel – It’s a touch thin but the carbonation is right. Doesn’t feel coarse at all. I personally like more body in a beer than this one brings though.

Drinkability – No complaints. It goes down easy and the warm spiciness of this one brings about a nice feeling.

I liked this beer quite a bit. Didn’t quite know what to expect going in. I think with a little more kick Weihnachtskatze could be amazing.
Apr 03, 2006
Photo of elricorico
Reviewed by elricorico from Canada (AB)

4.07/5  rDev +10.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4
While pouring I noticed a very unique colour to this beer. Instead of a yellow or gold colour it seemed to have a pale brown that I can't say I've seen before. It formed a thin off white head, but that fizzed away quickly.

The smell! I can't say I've ever smelled anything like it in a beer. Baked sweets, plums, cinnamon, nutmeg, perhaps a touch of ginger. The overall effect is like freshly baked cinnamon bread with some kind of sticky icing. I love smelling it.

The taste is fairly subdued when compared to the smell, but contains the same mix of sweet and spicy. Where it is different is the finish, which is a mix of bitterness and cinnamon, with just a hint of alcohol warmth. Very tasty all around.

The mouthfeel may be the only part of this beer that is lacking. It is fairly thin in the mouth, and would be better with a bit of body to it. This however is only a minor complaint.

Delicious beer. I love cinnamon buns, and this reminds me of a warm fresh one. A very pleasant surprise. I owe big thanks to Jim at Sherbrooke liquor for his generosity, as he offered this beer as a gift.
Apr 01, 2006
Photo of IronDjinn
Reviewed by IronDjinn from Canada (AB)

3.67/5  rDev -0.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 4
A winter special edition with the old-style cats on the label (ironic how I miss those cats from time to time, although still prefer the new design for their line-up). Came in a 341 ml brown bottle, and even lists spices in the ingredients on the label, just not which spices, which leaves the fun up to me to explore and discover. Pours out pale and hazy, almost like a mulled apple cider. On that theme the aroma of this winter ale hints very strongly to mulled apple cider, sweet malt blended with cranberries and cinnamon, some ginger, and even some citrus zest, with some warm nutmeg rounding it all out in the end. I like where the flavour is going as well, but it tastes watered-down, doesn't possess the boldness of an Xmas ale or a strong ale. However the spices are just as apparent in the taste, that of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, lemon zest, along with the flavours of baked apples and cranberry. The mouthfeel also seems a bit too far on the thin side, watery, and doesn't hold up the great potentials within this spiced ale. Due to that, however, it does present this holiday ale as very quaffable, and easily hides the alcohol content. Some fine tuning and this would be a stellar spiced winter ale, and one that I'd be willing to drive up to Edmonton to pick up. A huge thank you to Jim at the Sherbrooke Liquor Store for giving me a bottle of this to try, it's greatly appreciated.
Feb 23, 2006
Weihnachtskatze from Alley Kat Brewing Company
Beer rating: 3.68 out of 5 with 8 ratings