December 20th - 21st Amendment Brewery Fireside Chat

Welcome to your final installment of Winter Warmer Wednesday for the season.  It's hard to believe that it's December 20th already am I right?

21st Amendment Brewery out of San Francisco, California brews some pretty decent beers.  Their IPA varieties (Brew Free of Die IPA, Back in Black IPA just to name 2) are some pretty safe beers for me.  Middle of the road ratings wise, but always a solid choice.  Looking at their site, it seems that they're only brewing a select choice few at the present time, but if you check the Beer Advocate page, there are some gems that are (I assume) no longer in production.  Toaster Pastry may have been my all time favorite.  It may have been simply because it was served in a 24 ounce can too, however.

Borrowed from beeroftheday.com

For your last Wednesday blog of the month, we're taking a look at their winter warmer, or in this case they call it a winter spiced ale.  The ABV of Fireside Chat is like that of a winter warmer, clocking in at a 7.9%.  Perfect for relaxing and warming up by the fire, you ask?  Only time will tell.

The pour was a deep mahogany red with an off-white head at the top.  For me, the aroma was of mellow and dry spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.).  Coupled with that were some roasted caramel malt aromas and even a slight hint of raisins and plums/figs.  Add to that aroma a slight hint of smokiness as well.  The bitterness of this beer was what hit me first, giving me a taste of winter spruce along with some malty caramels, clove and cinnamon spice notes with even just a hint of the allspice and nutmeg in the background.  There is a tiny lingering bitterness here as well that was pleasant on the palate.  The malts compliment the hops here in this beer of many layers for certain.

There's a lot going on in this choice tonight.  Suffice it to say my palate may be getting overworked and not catching all the aromas and flavors, but I did my best.

Fireside Chat was good, but not my favorite WWW brew this year.  The prior two selections were better for my taste than this one, but if you're a fan of the spices this time of year, give it a whirl.  It's not overly hoppy or bitter, but the spiciness here is what may set this apart from the rest of this month's options.  For what it's worth, the 7.9% was very masked in here with surprisingly no alcohol warming like you normally see with the style.  

Another safe choice from this west coast brewer that stays in the middle of the road at a 3.5 out of 5.