Santa >ahem!< has found the cookies left out for him. After filling the stocking, he has retreated to the North Pole, or rather, my lower level workshop. Christmas Eve seems like a great time to pull out a cellar-dweller and talk about it.
Upland Brewing Co. of Bloomington, IN is now a veteran of the beer scene, having been founded in 1997. That’s just one year after Three Floyds. They have expanded into small breweries, taprooms and pubs across Indiana. In recent years, they’ve recreated the recipe for Champagne Velvet, an old-time pale lager once brewed in Terre Haute.
Winter Warmer was a seasonal barleywine, winner of a Silver medal in the 2008 World Beer Cup. This bottle is notched on the label to show it was bottled in October 2007. I picked it up in trade with a fellow local Ratebeer member, and have tried to keep it in a dark cool box ever since. But this seems as good a time to pop it as any.
After I poured it and paused to take the picture above, I took in a nice nose of plum and brown sugar. The head does a very good job of staying in the glass; it’s only lost half its height in the first ten minutes.
The taste still has some hop bitterness. Maybe not that distinguishable, or else just using mostly English hops. Alcohol is very warming as I sip it. The malt has more caramel, and a bit of roast to it. There is a bit of the papery note of oxidation, but that can’t be avoided with an 11-year old beer, especially at 9% abv. That one bit of off character is very mild, and does not distract from the experience of a beer made to lay down for, well, three presidential terms.
As with many cellared beers, there are some dregs in the bottom of the glass of dead yeast or hop particles. As always, I suggest you hold out that last quarter inch of beer, then swirl and dump it to get a different taste experience.
And with that, I can wish a Merry Christmas, and hope for more and better beers for all of us.
