Posted By kkozlen on Jan 28, 2017 | 1 comment

We’ve been cleaning the house all day, preparing for family to come over tonight after my in-laws 50th anniversary dinner. I was ready for a beer about two hours ago, but I’m finally grabbing one now that we’re mostly finished up. This one was the first one out of the beer fridge, because I received it last week, in a shipment from my friend @Bettywriter. She sent me three Widmer beers she had left over from the holidays.

Location: Poured into a TEKU pint glass at my home in Bloomington, IL

Numbers: 7.2% ABV, 50 IBUs,  17.0° Plato OG, 22L Color, 222 Calories

Ingredients: Malts: Pale, Caramel 10L & 80L, Carapils, and Dark Chocolate; Hops: Alchemy Hop Blend, Cascade, and Simcoe

Appearance & Aroma: It’s brick red/brown in color, and fairly clear. It had a decent soapy textured, white head on it that fell to a ring around the edge of the glass after a few minutes. However, it still left pretty good lacing on the glass. It has a bit of a citrusy-earthy hop aroma.

Taste & Feel: The body is medium and the mouthfeel is somewhat crisp from both the hops and the carbonation in it. The flavor up front is malty with some toffee and biscuity flavors, but in the middle, the hops kick in with some spiciness and citrusy flavors. The citrusy, earthy-spicy hop flavors open up in the finish with a decent bitterness, with a good, mild maltiness behind it. The hop flavors last for a minute or two in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This is a good winter beer, with some earthy citrusy hops and good maltiness. Since it’s a winter warmer, I think it would go great with a bowl of chili or some pulled pork.

Overall Impression: I enjoyed the mix of spicy, earthy, citrusy hop flavors in this beer, as well as the good mildly sweet malty backbone. The hop flavors and bitterness were balanced nicely, and along with the buscuity-toasty and toffee-like maltiness, made for a great winter warmer beer. Thank you @bettywriter!

My Rating: