Salt Spring Fireside Winter Ale

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Comes in a beautiful bottle, a light-tan coloured non-transparent glass reminiscent of old earthenware bottles, with the same type of stopper as Grolsch uses. Colour was a fantastic, rich amber, with very little head or aroma. Bad news as to taste, because I left this too long before drinking and it had gone seriously off. Taste was basically sour. Moral of this is drink it soon even if kept in the fridge, because nearly seven months old destroyed this one. Try again this Christmas, I guess. Re-reviewed 01 March 2006. Bought this again in December (produced only for Christmas). Still comes in a swing-top bottle with a very nice label; this season's bottle was a lovely blue glass, first time I'd seen this for a beer. Small head and a cloudy amber colour; this beer seems to have a fair bit of sediment about it. Not a lot of nose action going on here, a bit of malt, a bit of hop, and some fruit/spice but I can't tell which. Mouthfeel was somewhat thin to begin, with some sweetness in the aftertaste. Letting this sit for about five minutes after pouring made a world of difference, maybe it just needed to breathe. Taste and mouthfeel were much improved this way.