Merry Christmas!! I know Christmas falls on a Tuesday and Tuesday isn't one of my usual days to post content on here. But in the spirit of the season here is my gift to you, my dear readers, extra content! I'll be honest, as much as I do appreciate all of you folks who do check in here and check out my rambling thoughts on beer, and I really do, it's awesome. But this is just as much for me as it is for you guys. I have had too much fun talking about Christmas beers and I'm not quite ready to give them up just yet. So, you guys get more stuff to read and I get to drink and talk about more Christmas ales. It's a win win for everybody. A Christmas miracle! As I sit here writing this it's currently Christmas Eve and I'm watching It's A Wonderful Life and drinking a beer. Life doesn't get much better. Adding to the lovely evening is the fact that the beer I'm currently drinking comes from Listermann. Careful followers of this blog will recognize that name as the name of the shop I get my homebrew supplies from. The beer is called White Death and is brewed with Saigon cinnamon and fermented in Kentucky bourbon barrels. Now that sounds right up my alley. To the beer!
White Death (I love that name by the way. Although, looks like no white Christmas this year, bummer.) pours a very deep russet brown. I'd call it damn near opaque if it weren't for that bit of golden color down near the bottom of the glass. It's topped by a very thin layer of off white head that recedes pretty quickly.
On the nose I get plenty of that Saigon cinnamon. Like a lot. You know when there's a lot of cinnamon and it almost gets to the point of a spicy type heat? Kind of like that. There's a malty molasses sweetness under there that's joined by some vanilla and caramel from the bourbon barrel aging. There's a slight boozy note as well but really everything plays second fiddle to that cinnamon.
White Death is medium bodied and pretty slick on the mouthfeel. That Saigon Cinnamon doesn't waste any time making itself known. Big, strong, and a little oppressive, honestly. It kind of overpowers the whole beer. I get slight caramel, oak, vanilla hints but as soon as I start to pick them out it's just more and more cinnamon. And like on the nose it's cinnamon to the point of heat. It almost creates a sickly, medicinal character.
Well this is kind of a bummer. I was really excited to try this one, a barrel aged Christmas ale from a Cincinnati brewery. That sounds like something I ought to love. And there might be a good beer here, but it's drowned out by such a heavy hand with the cinnamon. I normally don't mind a robustly spiced beer, but there absolutely still has to be balance. There's no balance here. There's a hell of a lot of cinnamon. Hmm, well our Christmas celebration here on the blog is off to a bit of an inauspicious start. Check back in later this afternoon and tonight. All of these presents aren't socks and underwear. I think there are some video games and legos to be had under the tree as well.
HD
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