Polar Vortex
Southampton Publick House in Southampton, New York, United States 🇺🇸
Strong Ale Winter Out of Production|
Score
6.94
|
|
Clarkvv (16523) reviewed Polar Vortex from Southampton Publick House 19 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Draught pint at Hop Devil Grill on 1/12/07
Dull hickory brown with dark beige hues and a bit of light peach. Medium-high to high clarity with plentiful carbonation creating an off-white head that is small, but fairly well-retained, never falling below cover. Little to no lacing produced, however.
Everyone kept saying that the aroma and flavor werejust "there" or "regular". And of course, I love it. Maybe it’s because it’s balanced and flavorful, but nothing unusual or overly exciting, but I loved it. Sweet bread and gingerbread cookies in the nose, with a strong spiciness from the hops. Peppery and not really in the forefront, but adding balance to the well-extracted caramel malts. It gives the effect of adjunct spicing, though Spencer says there is none in here. Light buttercream and brown bread on the finish with a lighlty earthy, toffeeish nature that soothes the nose and lingers on until next whiff. No alcohol, medium in strength overall with a clean, not apparent yeast.
Medium sweet malts in the flavor fill up the palate with their softness, though the sweetness remains terribly balanced and never gets sugary or syrupy. Dry, spicy/peppery hops conjure images of ginger, white pepper, cardamon and orange peel. What a novel way to make a pseudo spiced christmas beer. Not overly complex in the malt category, with warm, round bready malts and graham cracker-like crunchiness coming on late. Some light fruitiness emerges on the end, as it warms. Lightly sweet malt notes linger on as well. Mostly clean, nothing musty or old to distinguish it as very English. Which is fine with me, as the medium amounts of moderately engaging carbonation leave well enough alone and allow the "regular" and "unexciting" flavors to go down very easy. Not sure what it is I find so attractive about SHs mid-range beers, probably the lack of hard malts and the sessionable nature of them.
fiulijn (28382) reviewed Polar Vortex from Southampton Publick House 19 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Draught at Hop Devil, NYC
Dark amber color; nice lace. Light caramel aroma. Strong caramel taste, with powerful bitterness, but nothing special.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
This is a good spice beer, a little harsh to drink but definitly distinct. Picked this up in a half gallon growler directly from the brewhouse. There is a little bitterness in the taste.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8
This beer is really unique and hard to pin down - deep amber in color, with a moderate white lacing - sweet and malty aroma, with hints of fruit and pastries - tingling carbonation greats the tongue - flavor profile is much like and IPA or an ESB at first, moderately hoppy, with a slight malt presence underneath - this malt presence then swells on the tongue, the hops disappear, and an extremely chewy, sweet, sticky malt explosion says hello, with healthy doses of raisins, figs, cherries and even a touch of strawberry - a touch of cookie dough - hops return in the finish in perfect harmony with the other flavors - my lips feel sticky - unique, delicious and hard to categorize.