Stone Brewing Co. doesn’t waste a lot of time and effort naming their beers.  Their pale ale has a slightly citrusy scent, and the middle is all bitter hops with a touch of grapefruit  trailing off to a bitter, slightly piney finish.  This is, to me, a pure pale ale, and it’s dominated by a clean bitterness.  If you like bitter beers, this is a good one.

Smuttynose Brewing makes some really nice beers, but their Winter Ale isn’t one of my favorites.  It’s chocolately, fruity, and sweet from the scent to the flavor, and through to the finish.  Cloyingly sweet, to my palate.  It’s a medium bodied beer, and if your taste runs to the sweet, by all means give it a try, but it’s a bit much for me.

The New York Brewing Company is the brewer for Costco’s Kirkland Signature line of beers, and the Pale Ale is another variety from the mixed case I picked up recently.  There’s some citrus and honey in the nose.  It’s a light to medium bodied ale, and there’s a bit of fruit and sweetness in the middle, like you’d get with Belgian yeast.  The finish is a bit bitter, but it’s a flat bitter, not a distinctive hoppy bitterness.  It’s so-so.

It’s supposed to be 27 degrees here tonight (Fahrenheit) which means it’s time to start reviewing the winter seasonals.  Snow Day Winter Ale from New Belgium brewing is a black ale that’s custom made for a cold night.  It’s got a roasty nose, a full body, and you can taste the roasted malt in the middle with a healthy dose of bitter piney hops to balance it.   It’s a hoppier beer than I expected. It’s got a creamy smooth and somewhat bitter finish.   If you’re a fan of hop-heavy beers, this is a good one to use to welcome the first days of winter.

Another day, another of Dogfish Head’s Off-Centered Ales.   In this case, according to Dogfish Head, Sah’tea is an updated version of a 9th century Finnish “proto-beer.”   It’s brewed with rye, juniper berries, and chai tea.   First, the beer pours a light amber color (the picture shows it much darker than it actually is, due to flash troubles.) You can certain smell the juniper and the rye in the nose, and the middle is sweet, with just a hint of rye and the strong signature flavor of chai tea.  It’s a big beer (9% ABV) and full bodied, with a full, sweet, lingering finish.  Definitely off the beaten track, and for the fans of sweet, spicy beers rather than hoppy beers, but I like it a lot.

It’s getting late in the year now, and time to get wrap up the fall seasonals.   Today is Sierra Nevada’s Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale.   It’s a classic brown ale with a lot of caramel in the nose, and a medium body.  The middle is malty and sweet, but not overly so.  The sweetness trails off to a finish that’s nearly perfectly balanced with hops, with just a hint of bitterness.  It’s a shame this is only a seasonal, because this is hands down one of my favorite brown ales, period.

Late Harvest is a seasonal amber ale from Redhook Brewing, of Woodinville, Washington. It’s a medium weight beer, with a slightly floral and slightly metallic nose, but not particularly strong. It’s well-balanced between the malt and the hops in the middle, and the finish is earthy and dry, with a little bit of hopiness.  This is a really nice amber ale, and one of Redhook’s better beers.

The Thanksgiving weekend is winding down, and so is this series.  For the last pumpkin ale I’ll be reviewing this year, I’m having a Terrapin Pumpkinfest malt beverage, brewed with pumpkin and spices.   There’s pumpkin and nutmeg on the nose, a it’s got a medium body with pumpkin, cinnamon, and other spices in the middle.  It’s got good spice flavor, but not overpowering.  There’s more sweetness here in the middle and the finish than with most of the beers I’ve reviewed this series, but not as much as there is in Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale, reviewed earlier in this series.  This is a seriously nice dessertyish pumpkin ale.

I give it a 4.3 out of 5.

This is part 8 of a 8 part Thanksgiving weekend series.

It’s finally Sunday, the last day of a lazy four-day weekend, and time to relax with a Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat ale.   So you’ve caught me again.  This is not a craft beer.  The second from a mega-brewery in this series, and this one is from that most mega of breweries, Anheuser-Busch.  No matter, it’s a pumpkin ale, and I still maintain that it’s better than the monstrosity that they market as Jack’s Spice Pumpkin Ale.  The Pumpkin Wheat bottle tells me that it’s brewed with Belgian yeast, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, and you can actually taste the spices in this one, unlike in Blue Moon’s Harvest Pumpkin Ale, reviewed on Friday.  The nose is pumpkin and spice, but the yeast doesn’t really seem to be adding anything to it.  More pumpkin and spice in the middle, and here there is a hint of characteristic fruit of Belgian yeast, but not a lot. The finish has a bit more spice, and is otherwise uneventful.   This is a decent pumpkin ale, for a mega-brewery beer.

I give it a 3.2 out of 5.  

This is part 7 of a 8 part Thanksgiving weekend series.  

Saturday evening, and that means more left-over turkey, and a glass of New Holland Brewing’s Ichabod Pumpkin Ale.  It’s brewed with pumpkin,  (of course?) cinnamon, and nutmeg.  It’s got a strong pumpkiny scent, and a lot of pumpkin and some cinnamon and bitterness in the middle, and a smooth, earthy finish.  This is a really nice beer from New Holland, and one of my favorite pumpkin ales this season.

I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

This is part 6 of a 8 part Thanksgiving weekend series.