mel’s jingle brews pt. 3/Beer 101

It’s all about keepin’ warm in the winter, however you define winter in your neck of the woods. Either way, ’tis the saison for some really kick-ass brews that only crop up this time of year. I had Full Sail’s Wassail Winter Ale for the past couple years, and I’m always comin’ back for more. It’s a quality winter ale, nice and dark, and never fails to keep you toasty. And while I *heart* Anchor’s Merry Christmas Ale, I have to say that a close 2nd (if not a tie) for my fave winter brew would be Anderson Valley’s Winter Solstice Ale. It’s a gorgeous explosion of seasonal joy. To paraphrase my friend Luisa, “That shit’s like a Christmas tree in your mouth!” And while typically, the experience of having a Christmas tree somehow taking up your mouthspace might be kind of painful and unpleasant, I’m sure she meant it in the most tastiest of ways. You know, the flavors bursting in your mouth, the browns and the greens and the snow and the freshness of it all. I LOVE the Winter Solstice. It’s so…festive! It pours a nice brown color with adequate head, but the best part is the smell and first sip. Toasty canela y nutmeg and a hint of coffee caramel topped off with a spicy tea-latte kind of feel with no funky aftertaste that so many of these seasonal beers leave to linger. My compadre and I polished off nearly a six-pack between the two of us, it’s so tasty. I like the Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome Ale, but not as much as the Anchor or Anderson Valley winter brews. Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome Ale pours a deep blonde/golden color and leaves a nice patterned head. Not all winter brews are deep brown/dark amber types, I’m finding. Samuel Smith’s, brewed in Yorkshire, England, looks like a regular ale. Nice fruity nose with a bitterness that to me isn’t typical of winter ales. There’s no warm cinnamon or nutmeg that jumps right out at you. Any of those tones that do come through are pretty subtle, dominated instead by the fruity bitterness that characterizes most ales. If I was blindfolded, I wouldn’t know this was a winter brew. Then again, it could be a style thing; that is, maybe the Brits’ version of winter brew is just different from what many US (more specifically, California/West Coast) breweries do during this time of year. Even something like El Monte’s Skyscraper Winter Warmer gives more of the brown ale feel. When I had my first sip of the Winter Warmer, I really liked it, and my first impulse was to compare it to Anchor’s Merry Christmas ale. Its initial warmth and spice made an impression on me that sadly sorta wore off for me after a full pint. I have to say that I think the Winter Warmer is the best beer in Skyscraper’s lineup of brews. If you like the AmberBock from Michelob (i.e., Anheuser Busch/Budweiser), you’ll really like the Skyscraper winter brew. It’s easy drinking that goes down well, but in the end, it doesn’t really stand up to the boldness of the Winter Solstice or Merry Christmas Ale. Still, I found it to be a great warm-up beer before moving on to others.

I had my first pint of the Skyscraper Winter Warmer at Vinatero wine shop in Whittier last week, before their “Beer 101″ event presented by Dean Green. We tasted the Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse, Skyscrapter Lug Nut Lager, Kostritzer Shwarzbier, Chimay (red label), Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A., Black Butte Porter, and Deus. This was a great tasting for both newbies and beer-geeks alike. The good folks at Vinatero taught us important stuff, like how beer is made from 4 ingredients (not corn or rice, like Bud/Miller/Coors add to their ‘beers’), and that you can really get the full flavor of a beer by pouring into a glass rather than chuggin it from the bottle. These days, I’m all about pouring a beer in the glass, even if it’s something like Negra Modelo or PBR, because most beers do taste better out of a glass. Granted, beers like Pacifico (or okay, fine, Bud Light) are meant to be chugged from the bottle. But even a Negra Modelo tastes like a whole different beer when it’s allowed to ‘breathe’ and open up, much like how a red wine needs to be decanted or drunk from a wide-mouthed glass. That whole thing about how it allows you, the drinker, to enjoy the nose and fully appreciate the taste of the beer is true. Pour your beer in a glass and savour the flavour. (And yes, I know I spell like I’m in the U.K. For affect/effect, you know.)