Cold Mountain Winter Ale

Bottle thanks to hank1980. Great bonus beer. Pours with a largish, off-white head and a murky amber body. Head leaves good lacing. Aroma of caramel, currants, cinnamon sugar, orange peel and leather. Taste is of apple-cinnamon pie filling, toasted coconut, vanilla, caramel, creme brulee crust, and a touch of alcohol warmth (more than 5.8% normally would). Lightly creamy mouthfeel. Moderate carbonation.

Tap at Trappeze in Athens. Pours amber with tan head. Aroma is very sweet, sugary and almost gives this nice syrupy. Taste, amazing, nice caramel malts and chocolate with notes of fruits and licorice which gives a very sweet mouthfeel with faint touch of spices and cinnamon. Finish is lightly hoppy. Thick on the palate leaving a fruity & syrupy aftertaste.

This was really nice, I was very impressed. Deep ruby chestnut, moderate head. Aroma is malt forward but not heavy, with notes of chocolate and berries/cherries. Flavor is similar but also very biscuity, cookieish. Like christmas sugar cookies, or barely a hint of gingerbread cookie and thats the only spice I got in this. Light balancing hop in the finish. Soft palate, with a nice light carbonation.

2006 Swingtop bottle from Oldgrowth, drunk on 5/26/07
Still plentiful carbonation resulting in a massive, auburn-specked-beige head that is slow to recede, yet eventually falls to cover, leaving light lacing. Mostly clear body, with nearly no sediment on the bottom is a chartreuse-orange with darker chestnut tints.
Smells meaty. Like gruit meaty. I was sort of expecting something of a spiced scotch ale, but I didnt really get that. Like they used lots of heather and a darker spice, not as dry and distinctive as cinnamon, but still quite astringent and puzzling. The rest of the beer seems to be an amber ale, with crystal malts hardening things and not really complementing the already dry spiciness. That meaty, almost vegetal quality returns on the end, with some vanilla and lots of toast. Maybe some anise in there too? Alcohol is well-concealed, but there could be a bit of DMS and the spices just dont provide any enjoyment that I can find.
Sweet caramel, with tons of esters providing plums, red apples and figs. Crystal malt hardness never really allows for a soft or full texture and the spicing goes from weird to astringent. An interesting cherry-orange-vanilla-anise thing going on on the finish, with lots of lightly tannic grains. Needs a lot more base malt, just gets too crunchy/earthy/toasty. Carbonation is quite high. Not really flawed, just overspiced and with a really strange malt bill.

Bottle from Ross; nose of sweet caramel and vanilla; rusty red with a small straw head; sweet and spicy with some caramel malt, fruitiness, and a tiny bit of hops. A decent Christmas ale!

Bottle (Winter 2006-07). Light cinnamon and vanilla malt aroma. Dark amber color with small head. Raw sugar cookie dough/cinnamon/vanilla (snickerdoodle) flavor. Mild hops finish - high acidity and carbonation. Has a nice cookie flavor without being cloying or with the strong spice flavors that are usually present in this style. (Winter 2007-08) - not really detecting a great deal of difference - similar aroma, color and taste but a bigger head. Still a quality brew.

Pours a sparkling clear dark garnet with a small fleeting head. Fruity aroma gives off grape and honeydew melon. The flavor starts with a grape candy sweetness, a slight bitterness comes in as it fades to a dry finish. I didn’t get and of the vanilla that others have noted, I’ll look for it when I try another one of these.