Tag: winter warmer

Beer of the Week: Stoup Brewing Winter Warmer

By Iron Chef Leftovers

untitlasedI both love and hate seasonal beers – I love them because it means that I have something new to look forward to when I go to a brewery and I hate them because when I decide I really like a beer, I know that it will only be there for a limited time. This winter, I went on a winter warmer kick and basically went out of my way to try a bunch of them from various breweries around town. I was happy to see that Stoup made one and was excited to try their version of what is becoming one of my favorite styles. The Stoup version clocks in at 7% ABV and 30 IBU.

The beer pours deep brown in color with hints of amber. Roasted malt dominates with notes of spice and chocolate interspersed. The beer starts out slightly sweet on the initial sip with significant amounts of malt character, followed by a slightly fruity middle of dried cherries and apricots coupled with hints of figs before finishing with a touch of warming alcohol joined with a mild spice (cardamom and cloves) enhanced with more dried fruit in a significantly long finish. The alcohol disappears the further you get into the beer and the sweetness less pronounced. The beer has fine balance and rich character and would be nice next to a fire on a cold winter day.

Stoup Winter Warmer grabs a blanket and a chair and cozies in with 4 roaring fires out of 5.

On a sad note, this is the last review of a beer from my 2013 note book. The book is getting retired to the CSE Archives for posterity. Although you have been reading many reviews from beers that I have had in 2014, this marks the last one that I consumed in 2013. Not bad – this review is making onto the site just shy of 4 months after I actually had the beer.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Snowfield 2013

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I love the winter warmer style of beer – malty but not too sweet with plenty of character to get you through a cold evening. I was excited back in December to see that NW Peaks was bringing back their Snowfield beer, a wonderful winter warmer.

From the NW Peaks website:

The name. The mountain. With a name like Snowfield, we couldn’t resist naming our winter beer after it. Additionally, Snowfield is a mountain that takes more effort and time to climb. While it weighs in at a mere 8,347′ and Washington’s 90th highest peak, it stands 6,500′ above the Pyramid Lake trailhead with multiple ‘ups and downs’ and glaciers en route. The Pyramid Lake trailhead is right off hwy 20 just S of Diablo dam. While the trail is nothing to write home about, once into the Colonial basin views are truly spectacular with the whole N Cascades park within view and Snowfield a half day’s hard work from there. But we digress, we just loved that climb so much, just like the beer, that we could ramble on forever.

The Beer.This is our latest version of the Snowfield. We used largely the same ingredients, but played with the ratios and yeast. This year, we used the American yeast that ferments clean and dry, pushing the hop aroma forefront. We also added another variety of hops – Sorachi Ace – to increase the lemon/citrus aroma to play off the chocolate notes from the malt. The result is a nicely balanced winter beer featuring notes of chocolate and citrus hops. While not a heavy hitter in ABV for winter beers (6.6%) Snowfield is still a great winter beer, perfect to warm you up on a dark winter evening.

Malts: ESB, chocolate, honey, crystal. Hops: centennial, sorachi ace. ABV: ~6.6%

untitle8dThe beer pours dark brown in color with a cream colored head. It shows loads of malt on the nose with hints of dried fruit and chocolate coupled with a subtle note of spices. The beer starts out on the palate with lots of pleasantly sweet malt before moving into deeper flavors – first with roasted chocolate before transitioning into hints of dried fruit and finishing with a mild and pleasant hop bitterness that mingles with the other flavors in an extremely long finish. The beer drinks deep and complex with a great balance of malt and dark roasted flavors to warm you up on a cold winter day.

NW Peaks Snowfield 2013 straps in and goes for a hike with 4 snowshoes out of 5.