December 10 - Southern Tier - Old Man

Southern Tier - Old Man

Welcome to the second installment of...

  If you missed last week's blog post for Winter Warmer Wednesday check it out here!

Tonight I decided to pick up Southern Tier's Old Man, a winter ale.  So far, I've gotten lucky with the winter warmers this year in that I haven't hated any of them.  Let's hope that trend continues this evening.  Southern Tier makes quite a few quality beers, including their 2 fall releases in Pumking and Warlock, which are both pumpkin beers that are high in ABV in addition to being awesome!

The beer poured a caramel brown color with a thin bead of head at the top, which quickly dissipated to nearly nothing.  There was some slight lacing on the side of the glass as well. 

The aroma threw me for a loop at first before I enlisted the help of my wife's olfactory skills.  I guess I've become immune to hops to a degree because I totally missed that when giving this beer the once over.  I was expecting spices and all the other traditional spice aroma that goes along with the traditional winter warmer.  After getting past the obvious, that I was oblivious to, there was some fruity, sweet, roasted and spicy aromas.  Honestly, I couldn't put my finger on any of them except for the pine hop aroma.  There was also a slightly boozy note to the beer as it warmed up.

The taste also thew me off initially because, yet again, no spice smack in the face.  There was definitely a malt-forward taste to this beer along with some caramel and possibly toffee flavors.  The beer is hoppy for sure, and takes a dry turn very quickly as it finishes to a fruity and pine taste.  I decided to let the beer warm slightly to see if the flavor changed at all and the only difference that I got was that it became much smoother to drink along with the flavors becoming much more balanced.

The craziest thing about this beer was the level of complexity, yet at the same time, the aroma, flavor, and finish didn't have any particular dominant components.  If I was forced to pick out what dominated this beer it would definitely be the pine hop profile from this brew.

Solid brewing from Southern Tier right here.  The 7% will sneak up on you after #2 or #3 for sure, but it's so easy to drink that you probably won't care too much. 

I'm using it again, since I'd rate this a 3.5 / 5...it's my blog...I'll re-use what I want to!