Anderson Valley Winter Solstice

Brewer: Anderson Valley
Style: Winter Warmer
ABV: 6.9%

ANother craft pack beer, I picked this up from Wegmans having never heard of the brewer before. The bottle states it has won a gold medal and they are "Consistently judged one of the World's Finest Breweries." I would like to believe this but to me it appears more marketing than anything else. Its about as useful as Pabst's Blue Ribbon, lets hope it can live up to its label.

The color is dark amber that gets a little more orange around the edge of the glass. The head was an offwhite color that settle down into a light lace rather quickly. Now, I didn't get much out of the aroma of this beer, mild congestion and what seems to an overall lack of aroma. What I can pick up is a light vanilla and a little cinnamon.

The taste is much better than the smell, lots of spices come out in the very beginning finishing with a slight wintery spiciness. The mouth feel is very smooth almost creamy and goes along well with the vanilla, cinnamon flavor that leads the way. Oddly I almost think of apple pie a la mode when drinking this. I will say it stood up pretty well to the comments on its label and I am giving it a solid B+.

-Roy

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