New Belgian Brewery's Snow Day Winter Ale

There's nothing in the winter like a crisp delicious beer while bitchin' about the bastard weather outside. I'm one of the people out there who's happier when they are miserable. I like to complain; babes say its totally attractive.

But I can't complain about this beer. I mean, man, it's simply delicious. I mean most winter ales are. We originally covered New Belgian here in the review of their Belgian Ale; so if you wanna know more about 'em, just click the link, you ding-a-ling! Imagine your tailgating on the east coast and it's colder than piss out. You've been drinking since 7:00am and you piss on a tree and you literally piss so much that it warms the air in front of you, and you never wanna quit peeing. You know that? Then you walk back to the grill to warm up and you grab a beer and the taste just...makes you warm. Rich, deep bodied, and tasty enough that, in this weather, you could drink it warm. And after a dozen or two you puke on that same tree you pissed on earlier and it doesn't leave such a bad taste in your mouth.

This stuff is real crisp, it'll stimulate your bitter tastes buds on the sides of your mouth a little, but it doesn't have a bitter, annoying aftertaste or a gross, hoppy sensation on your tongue. There's a dry, chocolate taste mixed with a little caramel. It's a touch nutty with a little hoppy tang you might expect from a pale ale. It's real tasty though. It's aroma is a smoky, caramel odor and it's dark in color with a tan head.

They use wheat malts on this baby and Centennial, Styrian Goldings and Cascade hops. This along with the wheat malts we talked about blended with some pale malt and something called C-80 malts, which I think is the same thing Luke Skywalker ordered at the space station where they met Han Solo.

She's got an ABV of 6.2% which is a little lower than I would have guessed. It's got an IBU of 55, so it'll rank around the hoppiness of a Pale Ale. The label is okay. I would have done of a "Bear in the Chair" approach, but that's me. New Belgian is a well respected name in the beer game, so everyone will respect if you roll deep with a case of this. A 12-pack will run you $15.

Other New Belgium Reviews:
Ranger IPA
Fat Tire
Belgian Ale
Pale Lager

Drinkability: 6/10

Taste: 8/10

Value: 4/10
Curb Appeal: 6/10

Overall: 6.0/10