The Bar Towel

Great Lakes Brewery have officially released their newest seasonal beer, Great Lakes Winter Ale. Here is the announcement originally posted to the Bar Towel News back in November:

In light of the great response to our Devil's Pale Ale, we've brewed a brand new beer that will be ready just in time for the holidays. Appropriately named Great Lakes Winter Ale, it will be our seasonal offering for the next few months. Inspired by the long, cold, and seemingly endless Canadian winter, our Winter Ale is a true winter warmer, weighing in at over 6% alcohol and with a rich amber colour. Handcrafted with a variety of specialty hops and malts, combined with generous amounts of cinnamon, ginger and orange peel, this unique beer is brimming with flavour! A limited edition stencilled bottle (750ml with a cork stopper) will be available only at our retail store by the second week of December. As with our Devil's Pale Ale, we hope to have it on tap at some of the city's finest beer destinations before Christmas.

A limited number of bottles are now available for sale at the brewery, and kegs will be dropped off next week at various GTA bars and restaurants.

Bar Towel News item - http://www.bartowel.com/news/archives/000243.php

I haven't tasted this yet, but I am thrilled to see it out there. It is truly fantastic to see new beers appear, especially when they come from from unexpected sources! I guess the Devil's Pale Ale was an indication that Great Lakes was beginning to "get it".
Seasonal beers like Black Oak's Nutcracker ( a slam dunk winner) make the beer landscape much less monotone and grim.

I stopped by the brewery store and picked up a few bottles last night.

First, let me say the bottles look great! Big 650 mL corked bottle with nice a nice silk screen jacket.

While I was waiting to pay I was offered a sample because they had some on draught. I think that those who get their hands on it won't be disappointed.

The beer is a dark caramel colour. Some spiced beers that I have tried in the past seemed to want to hit me over the head with a hammer that said "SPICE!". Not so here. The spicing is definitely evident but not at all overbearing. The quantities they've chosen work very well together to create a flavour smoothly melds well with the malt backdrop, reminding me of gingerbread and the spices from a good pumpkin pie (just telling you what I thought ).

I don't know who I was talking to because I didn't ask their name , but well done!

Tried it last night at the brewery. Very nice, reminded me of Sam Adams Old Fezziwig from years ago. Congrats to Great Lakes!

Made the trip to the brewery yesterday for this sampling.....the release of the devil's ale put these guys on my must sample list...they are experimenting and the brewer loves to mix malts...lotsa malts. sampled the tap version and bought a few bottles to cellar ( don't know if they'll last a year)

The Winter ale was another pleasant surprise. It is certainly one of the most falvorful, satisfying and comforting spiced winter ales I have tasted....beats what comes from many domestic Micos this year. I like the ABV where they put it at 6.2% ...just enought to warm and comfort without the taste or rush of boozy alcohol you get in a barley wine.....the spicing is well done but not over done and there is a substantial mallt body to this ale...still there is not enough alcohol or spice that would prevent you from having a couple of these....nicely done.

Cass: I never tasted "old fezziwig" but if it was rich with malts lightly sweet with just enough bittering and lots of spice and a orange peel tang to it, then it may be a ringer for the GL seasonal

I was never overly excited about the beers from this brewer but I took notice when they reformulated their dunkel and they really seem to have come out of the closet with their last 2 special brews as innovative and experimental brewers. Hope they keep the trend going.

Had this last night at Volo. Much like the Nutcracker, this is nice. Really nice. I've found that some spiced beers whack you upside the head which I don't care for, some have a mish-mash of flavours that don't work while others blend into something very pleasing. The GLB Winter Ale falls in that last category. After sampling my girlfriends glass, I decided I would end the night on it rather than the Amsterdam Tilted Kilt. I suspect a trip to the brewery for some bottles may be in order...

I guess I'm a bit of a latecomer, but just had this on draught for the first time last night. Liked it enough to venture out to the brewery today for some more. They still have bottles for sale. (A bit pricy, at $6.95 for the bomber, but I appreciate that a lot of work and raw ingedients likely went into this).

As others have said, it is an excellent, soothing winter warmer. To me, the cinammon is more evident than perhaps others have indicated. Reminds me of "cinammon toast". It is very nice and I like it better than any other Great Lakes beers I've sampled, including the 666 Pale Ale. I'll look forward to their next seasonal in the spring.