Topic Archives: Winter Ale

Posted in New Releases, Wild Heaven Craft Beers

NEW RELEASE: Wild Heaven Winter Ale

Wild Heaven Craft Beers (Decatur, GA) is releasing its first seasonal – “Wild Heaven Winter Ale”.  Winter Ale isn’t 100% new, but it is a “winterized” version of “Ode To Mercy”, one of Wild Heaven’s launch beers.

Wild Heaven brewer Eric Johnson took Ode To Mercy an imperial brown brewed with coffee from 1,000 faces in Athens, Georgia and aged it in bourbon oak instead of French oak.  The result is a coffee infused brown ale, with hints of coffee & vanilla bourbon.  Winter Ale features west coast hops, marris otter malts & Belgian aromatic hops.

Availability: Draft only.  Winter seasonal.

8.5% ABV

Posted in Casks, Rogue Brewing

CASK ALERT! Dry Hopped Rogue Mogul Madness (Round 2)

2010 is off to a great start, especially in the aspect of casks.  Tonight, Friday 2/5/10, Rogue Mogul Madness Ale dry hopped with Amarillo.

Mogul Madness is a winter ale, seasonally released by Rogue Brewery, Newport, Oregon.  In the regular release of this ale, 15 ingredients are used —

Malt Profile — 2 Row, Munich, C -120, C-150, Kilncoffee, Carofa’s Special  2 Malts.

Hop Profile — Newport, Horizon, Simcoe, Centennial, Crystal 90, Amarillo, Rogue Farm grown Willamette.

Yeast Profile — Pacman Yeast from Hood River

The cask uses a 16th ingredient — (well, reused again) dry hopped Amarillo.   Dry hopping is the addition of hops to the fermenter or keg (in this case, cask.)   It doesn’t bitter the beer, but adds more of the aromatic hop flavors that get lost in the boil.  In the end, it’s a hoppier version of Mogul, unfiltered and unpasteurized.

Mogul Madness Ale is estimated at 6.5% ABV.   Cask tapped promptly at 6 pm.

Taco Mac Metropolis, 6pm (02/5/10)
933 Peachtree Street N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30309
(404) 631-6526
@tmacmetropolis (on twitter)

Posted in New Releases, Red Brick

Red Brick’s Winter Ale Returns

Just shortly after Red Brick’s very successful release of 15th Anniversary Ale comes their seasonal release, Winter Ale.

Winter Ale is a Belgian dark ale, 8.2% ABV.  Winter is one of the stronger of beers in the Red Brick lineup.  For this ale, Red Brick used a Trappist style yeast ( see various previous posts about Trappists.)  This strain of yeast gives the Winter some nice banana/clove flavors.   Loads of caramel malt are also in Winter, complimented by 40+ lbs of Belgian candy sugar.   Belgian candy sugar is indeed a sugar, used to boost the ABV of beer, without the yeast producing invertase (an enzyme that breaks down sugar) – which can give the beer an off flavor.

As described by Red Brick – “Winter Ale is chestnut brown in color, aromas of dark fruits, bananas (bananas foster?), rise from an alcohol laced head. Plum-like flavors with accents of raisins, crusty French bread, and caramel followed by gentle warming are enjoyed with each sip.”

Winter Ale is great now, and lays down well.   Available December – early March.

Available in bottles & kegs.