Day 21 of the Advent-ure Calendar

Day 21: Southern Tier Brewing Company Old Man Winter Ale

Southern Tier makes very flavorful beers, sometimes too flavorful.  Example: Pumpking, Warlock and Creme Brulee Stout.  All are way too much for Beard and Broad to handle; cloyingly sweet and an instant hangover. Per Southern Tier’s description “A deceptively strong brew, its best to sit and ponder with this old man sip by sip.”  This sounds a bit terrifying coming from the brewery that produces the aforementioned swill, but let’s see what we got.

REFLECTIONS

Beard & Broad
Beard: I think dark Belgians and stouts will always be my go-to cold weather beers of choice, but non-spiced robust ales are a nice change. This falls into the latter category and is a great example of it. Just enough malty toastiness to balance out the hop bitterness. I’d actually like to try an aged version of this see how it develops. But, a fresh one will do just fine for now.

Broad: This is very tasty. It tastes like a malty, winter ale. I get hints of nuttiness and earth flavors. I was worried by the description that it would be too earthy and syrupy but it’s not. It is a bit strong so I would only want to drink one or two of these before moving onto something lighter. I could add this toasty ale to my winter beer lineup.

Adam & Alex
Adam:Old man winter, much like most of southern tier beers (in my opinion) is fairly hoppy. I’m not a huge fan but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good beer. If you like IPAs i suspect you’ll love this.

Alex: Southern Tier Old Man Winter was too hoppy for my taste, which makes sense as it’s an IPA. This one was just not for me, though I am sure IPA lovers would enjoy it immensely.

Mez & Sam (waiting for reviews)

Mez:

Sam: I did not like this. It tasted like a weak IPA.