Harpoon Winter Warmer

Hey everyone, thanks for coming by these parts. This whole week the temperature in NJ hasn't been higher than 25F, and at night we are usually in single digits. Now, this may not be a big deal if you are in Maine or Canada or Alaska, but we haven't seen this kind of weather in awhile. Not that I'm complaining, I kind of like it, so I'm just making an observation. I'm going to take advantage of this cold weather tonight and enjoy a winter warmer.

Harpoon has been brewing their Winter Warmer since 1988. It took me awhile for that year to really settle in. 1988. I was only 7 years old when Harpoon first started brewing this beer. 2 years after the Mets beat the Red Sox in the World Series. I love thinking of the early days of "craft" brewing, and how it must have been to convince the American public to buy something they didn't know they wanted just yet. Harpoon has decided to up their ante, and will be opening a brand new 300-seat beer hall that will have great visuals of the brewery. A trip up to Boston is definitely in order!

Winter Warmer

Harpoon Brewery

Spiced Ale

5.9% ABV

21 SRM

Harpoon Winter Warmer pours a striking copper color with a small off white head, which bubbled away very quickly. Dominating aromas are cloves, vanilla and cinnamon. Blended together, it is honestly a bit medicinal. Lots of mixed flavors going on, mainly cinnamon and clove. Harpoon Winter Warmer is quite sweet, medium bodied and a little less than average carbonation.

Overall: Not terrible, but not great. The flavors are decent, but not something I could drink all the time. Glad I tried it though!

What do you think of Harpoon Winter Warmer? Let me know in the comments!

As always, find me on Facebook, Twitter and Google+!

Comments

BJCP: Strong Scotch Ale (9E)

This is the first article in a new series of posts, where I will periodically choose a section from the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) style guidelines , write about the style, and then drink and publish my tasting notes from some of the commercial examples given by the BJCP. Now, I'm not sure if I will ever actually take the exam to become a beer judge, but I think this will be a fun exercise to learn more about beer! Fair warning, I will not be doing the sections of the BJCP style guidelines in any sort of order. Whichever kinds of beer I am craving is what I will be writing about! Strong Scotch Ales (also known as Wee Heavy) comprise sub-category 9E in the BJCP style guidelines. They range between 6.5% and 10.0% ABV, and have a light copper to dark brown appearance. Obviously, strong scotch ales are all about showcasing the malt. While studying this style, I found it quite interesting that the brewers ferment out the wort at cooler temp...

The Six-Pack Project: New Jersey

Welcome to the Six-Pack Project! The idea of the project is to create a six-pack of beer that would best represent the current beer scene in your respective state. For me, that is obviously New Jersey. The Six-Pack Project was created by Bryan over at the This Is Why I'm Drunk blog. Check out his introduction to the project here ! 10 years ago, beer probably wasn't the first thing that came to your mind when you were thinking about New Jersey. However, times are changing, and it's an exciting time to be a beer drinker in the Garden State. Every year, more and more bars are starting to serve a greater variety in beer. Even more importantly, new breweries haven been opening in NJ each year, and lots more are in planning Today, there is a wide variety of beer brewed here in New Jersey. Choosing six beers to best represent the state was no easy feat, but I was up for it! Hopefully, the following will clue yo...

Beer Variety from New Jersey

Just what New Jersey beers are people drinking these days? What are the post popular styles that are coming out of the Garden State? In a previous post , I outlined what 6 bottled Jersey beers I would give to someone to represent New Jersey (kudos to Bryan from This Is Why I'm Drunk for the blog collaboration idea). In this post, I'm going to look at NJ beers a little differently. To get a good sense of the NJ beers people are drinking, I could call up each bar and liquor store around and see what their top selling brands are, call the breweries to see which is top grossing, or see what beers are top rated on any of those beer rating websites. A quicker and easier way to achieve this, I believe, is to simply look up Untappd check-ins! The beer rating websites may give you each brewers top-rated beer, but won't give you top selling. Untappd may be a very small sample size compared to the real sales numbers, but I feel it suits this purpose...

Mould's Beer Blog

Search This Blog