Snow Day Winter Ale

The New Belgium Brewing Co. of Fort Collins Colorado is awesome.  Apparently, the brewery is both wind powered and employee owned.  Pretty rad!  Their Winter Ale is a very dark brown--almost black--with reddish highlights and a modest amount of wispy off-white head.  It comes in 355mL bottles that are sealed with adorable winter-themed caps and contains a virile 6.2% alcohol.

Winter Ale has a strong, malt-heavy aroma that smells very rich.  There is a nice warm flavour that moves from bitter to sweet.  There are lots of roasted flavours--nuts and grains.  Then the bitter comes back for an encore in the aftertaste.  The alcohol taste is effectively masked, but there's no denying that this brew has some warmth to it.

The New Belgium Winter Ale is well worth your time.  It's warm, robust, and quite delightful.  Get yourself a pint and beat the winter blues.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.