Friday, December 16, 2011

Abita Christmas Ale

Consumed from the bottle into A Sam Adams special glass. Purchased for $2.50 at the House of 1000 Beers in New Kensington, PA.

The Abita page about the beer can be found HERE.

Abita Christmas Ale is A seasonal brew. (Winter)

An American Brown Ale coming in at 5.50%ABV.
Brewed by Abita Brewing Co.
Louisiana .


Look: Very nice orange/brown/ruby-amber color.  The beer poured A thick 2 finger tan, off-red head. Semi-cloudy/clear.  The beer wasn't murky but it also wasn't easy to see through either. Abita Christmas Ale left some decent lacing around the glass as I consumed it. 

Smell: From the start, I get pine.  It smelled as if I had walked into A store that sold nothing but Christmas trees.  The real ones...not the plastic ones. I also picked up some very faint, lightly toasted malt.  Maybe even some faint spices hiding in and around somewhere. A bit lacking and uninspiring. 

Taste
: Well. The first sip was very disappointing. I picked up almost nothing.  Some pine from the hops and maybe some light nutmeg and biscuit...but not much of those even. Maybe the beer is too cold?  After letting it warm up for A good half an hour or more, I decided to give it another go. This time A bit more flavor showed up, but not too much. Picked up some more nuttiness that blended nicely with the pineyness from the hops. Some honey and toasted malt. A little baker's chocolate, and some spices that I was unable to identify because of how faint they tasted.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied. Low carbonation...Which I like in these kind of beers.  I don't need A lot of carbonation ruining the flavor by numbing my tongue. The beer was just A bit chewy. Definitely came across as creamy.  It was able to coat my tongue and mouth just A little bit.

Overall: I'm pretty disappointed with this Christmas Ale. Especially compared to other ones. It's A bit piney and A little spicy but it just falls short of what I had expected.  Maybe I was hoping for too much?



Abita Christmas Ale gets A 3.5/5 from me.
Not bad, not great, A little better than middle of the road. 

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