Bottled. From old notes. Rich caramel malts like a scotch ale, nice spices, cinnamon and nutmeg. Rich and tasty, and not overdone as I thought it might be. Enjoyable.

Two Saranac beers in the same day, I am a glutton for mediocrity. This beer is a reddish-amber color with a medium with a very thin off-white head that disappears quickly. Spotty lacing on the glass. Aroma of spices and caramel apple. Light body with a subtle spice and malt character and flavors of mild apple and hops. The finish is lightly spiced with a short malty finish. Barely average overall.

12 oz bottle from Beastiefan2K; Nose of nutmeg, caramel malt, and cinnamon; dark copper with a medium, glass-lacing beige head; flavor nicely malted with the nutmeg, orange, and cinnamonshowing nicely. Very minor hop bitterness in the finish along with lingering nutmeg.

It just wouldn’t feel like the holidays if I didn’t waste my money on a mix pack from a mediocre brewery - looks like Saranac is on deck this year - this one says "the 12 beers of winter" - let’s ignore the fact that, despite this title, there are only SIX varieties of beer in here - there are two of each, so there are, technically, 12 beers, but I still can’t help but feel lied to, especially since the previous years’ packs HAVE had 12 different beers - but, if we want to split semantic hairs, this can’t really be construed as false advertising - and hey, didn’t it used to be the 12 beers of Christmas? - was this title too insensitive? - did some atheist somewhere write a letter of complaint to FX Matt, asking them to please rename the package the "12 beers with which to celebrate a non-denominational solstice celebration?" - who cares? - it doesn’t matter what you call the package, or how many "beers" you actually get out of it - no amount of complaining is going to change the fact that this beer just isn’t all that good.

I am rather tired of these overspiced one dimensional winter beers. Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a chestnut color with a small tan head. The aroma is full of nutmeg and some other vague spices. The flavor is overwhelmed with nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. There are some sour malts underneath but very little beer is able to rise above the spices. There is a vague nutty finish.

Amber brown color, minimal head. Spicy aroma of mostly nutmeg, some cinnamon too. Chocolatey caramel? Flavor is sweetish with caramel malts and nutmeggy spicing. The mouthfeel is a tad on the thin side - not that it’s light bodied but you just expect a little more body in a spiced winter ale. As a result, the spices tend to overwhelm just a tad. Finish is balanced, and the spices linger.

This is a good spice beer. Definitly has a cinnamon/nutmeg aroma. Pours with very little head. A brown color. Tastes similar to a pumkin beer. Overall, a good spice beer. If this is your thing, it is mine, it’s worth a shot.7/3/7/3/15

I am glad this years Winter Pack finally included this beer again. I couldn’t believe the large difference between the average and my rating. Sure I have a soft spot for Saranac but is it this soft? Pours dark copper, clear beer of course. Small head. Aroma is biscuit malt with spices. Taste is similarly strong on sweet biscuit with accenting spices (I really don’t know which ones). A very quaffable beer and actually missing that house mineral and corn thing that Saranac usually has. Actually, it seems the base beer might be an ESB under the spices. Obviously, still sterile filtered but it tastes good, not much I could do about that. Possibly after the glorious Caramel Porter, this may be the best beer Matt makes.
12oz bottled on 09/26/07, Delerium snifter/tulip glass.