Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale |
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It wouldn’t be Christmas without Samuel Smith’s Winter
Welcome Ale. Before the flood of Christmas seasonals from microbrewers and
megabrewers became popular, there was Winter Welcome. A perennial harbinger
of the Christmas season, Winter Welcome rang in Season’s Greetings with a
quote from Shakespeare on its label:
”Blessing of your heart, you brew good ale”
Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome pours to a deep amber color with light
carbonation and head formation and a nose hinting at raisin. The palate is
smooth and toasty malty, raisiny, nutty, buttery and mushroomy. It’s well
balanced in the finish, rather dry but not exceptionally bitter, and
unfortunately a tad skunked. I will never understand why this beer shows up
in clear glass year after year, but when I popped the cap off this year’s
version my nose was greeted with the familiar but unwelcome odor of skunk.
There’s not enough of this in the beer to make it undrinkable, but it is
noticeable. Update 1/11/2011: Give Samuel Smith's credit for this, they are consistent. As I sip the 2011 edition of this wonderful brew, I could just as easily be sipping a bottle from ten years ago. Same wonderful notes of butter rum, vanilla, mince pie and fruit cake, toasty nutty malt, and those wonderfully herbal and slightly bitter hops in the finish. I used to complain about Sam Smith beers being a bit expensive, but I bought a 550ML bottle this year for $3.99, not much more than I paid a decade ago. For that, I'm bumping it up a half star to a full five. Update 12/11/2014: Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome has become harder to find these days, at least here in Georgia. So when the local growler shop offered it up this past November I snapped up a bottle, which I'm enjoying tonight. Delicious as ever, malty and delightful with those luscious butter rum flavors, flinty, and in the finish full of earthy, herbal hop aroma and a balancing bitterness. If you don't care for spiced holiday brews (or even if you do), Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome is a treat that isn't spiced but is still very nice. As Sam Smith's says on the label: This seasonal beer is a limited edition brewed for the short days and long nights of winter. The full body resulting from fermentation in ‘stone Yorkshire squares’ and the luxurious malt character, which will appeal to a broad range of drinkers, is balanced against whole-dried Fuggle and Golding hops with nuances and complexities that should be contemplated before an open fire. Still a bargain at $4.99 for the 550 ML bottle in this the 25th anniversary year for Winter Welcome. Update 1/23/2020: It's the 30th Anniversary of Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale, and I'm enjoying this nutty, butter rummy, flinty treat all winter long. I picked up a four pack at Target for $9.49 in November of 2019 and I'm enjoying this wonderful beer in draft form (a rare sighting indeed) at Taco Mac in Alpharetta. Pricey at $8.58 for a 23-ounce mug, but worth every penny! Update 11/26/2020: Happy Thanksgiving! I'm enjoying a glass of the 2020-2021 Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale after the bird, and it is as wonderful as ever. The label has changed, as Samuel Smith's seeks to support bartenders in this the year of Covid. Every purchase of Winter Welcome (this year Welcome Back Ale) will help towards that end, if only just a little. This year I paid $8.99 for a 4-pack at Total Wine. And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box. *Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer. (B)=Bottled (D)=Draft |
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