Harpoon Winter Warmer
72 / 100
My experience will likely differ with most with this beer. I haven't had this in many years, living away from Boston now for over 5 years. I think that this particular one may, in fact, be that old - if not older. This was buried deep in my father's 2nd refrigerator in Massachusetts. Recently back visiting and with space in my car for the cross country drive, coupled with the fact that my father was not going to drink this ever - I brought it with me.
A few months have past. Of course, being in Los Angeles in the late summer, a winter warmer is never going to be your first choice. So I let this cool out with some other older winter offerings until I was ready. I suppose yesterday I was ready – I busted that bad boy open.
I poured it into a pint glass. Tons upon tons of sediment everywhere. No big deal that would simmer down within a few minutes. When it did it was a murky, ice tea looking beverage. The aroma was pretty intense, nothing subtle about it: pumpkin pie, cinnamon and nutmeg. The first thing I noticed when I tasted it was that the body was a lot thinner than I expected, especially since recently having Anchor’s Our Special Ale (a much better winter beer, imo). The spice flavors were there but not a lot more. As I drank more, I started warming up to it a bit more. Malt and nut flavors came out as the temperature of the beer increased.
I would have liked to have a fresh Winter Warmer to compare this to, but that wasn’t going to happen. I’m sure that one will taste quite different
