Winter Lager by Samuel Adams
After a long day of putting up Christmas decorations and shoveling 2 cubic yards of soil to our backyard, I decided it would be nice for me and my wife to go out for dinner. We needed a few things at Lowe’s and there was an Applebee’s close by, so off to the place where you can eat good in the neighborhood.
A quick query of the quirky waitress of the beers on draft left me with a few choices. Winter Lager by Samuel Adams was my choice for beer #13. Winter Lager is a beer in the style of a Bock, a strong German lager. Since I got this on draft, I didn’t have a bottle to check the ABV so a quick check up on the Sam Adams website let me know it clocks in at 5.6%.
To the table was delivered a Brewtus glass, actually a Weizen style glass, filled with 23 oz. of the Winter Lager. The color was beautiful, an iced tea looking color with some tinges of red. A clear beer it was with some nice carbonation bubbles making their way to the top. The white head was about a finger width thick. There was some nice lacing going on as I was drinking the beer. Initial smells were a whole lot of nothing. The beer was so cold when it came out I had to let it warm up a bit before I got a sweet malty aroma with just a slight citrus scent. The taste for me was nothing but that malty sweetness, after it warmed up. The more it warmed up, the more that malty taste came out. Every once in a while I would get slight citrus (orange) taste. According to their website, this is brewed with ginger and cinnamon. I did not smell or taste any of that. The brew had a decent medium mouthfeel with just a bit of carbonation going on. It had an aftertaste that I couldn’t quite pin down, it wasn’t a bad aftertaste, it was just there. It was a pretty smooth drink overall.
Overall it was a pretty average beer compared to some of the others I have had over the first 13 days. Not terrible but not exceptional either.
Rating: C
I agree with you. Nothing very exciting about this one. After throughly enjoying the Samuel Adams Octoberfest, I had high hopes for the Winter Lager. It did not compare at all. Interested in the Winter Box assortment as there are three (I think) Samuel Adams beers that you can only get in the box.