December 21 - Deschutes Jubelale Festive Winter Ale


Happy Winter Solstice everyone! Well, it's been winter in Brandon, Manitoba since this time in November, and it's been bitterly cold, so I can't wait for more sunshine and spring to come on by!

Today's beer is Jubelale Festive Winter Ale by the folks over at Oregon's Deschutes Brewery. I've honestly never had a Deschutes beer, even though I hear about their beer all over the place, but hey.. time for me to try something by a brewery I've never had, right?! EDIT: Oops, day one beer Hop Trip was a Deschutes beer. Myth busted! Aaaanywho, on to Jubelale!

Appearance: Jubelale pours a dark brown ale with a nice red cherrywood hue to it. Creamy bread dough head, sticking to the glass.

Aroma: A bit of an essence of paint thinner at first, but also caramel, a bit of a roastiness in it, raisins, butterscotch and some other winter flavours like cinnamon added just to be sure.

Taste: Quite an earthy fire roasted malt bitterness in my mouth followed by sweet caramel, chocolate, raisins and quite a bit nutty, not much really going on here, but it's quite sweet thanks to the caramel, and quite bitter from the roastiness.

Overall Thoughts: It was alright, was a standard winter ale, with a bit of a roastiness to it and a nice amount of caramel for sweetness, I wouldn't go out of my way to find this beer, but the artwork on the bottle is quite awesome, and with Jubelale being at 6.7% ABV, it's going to help me fall asleep a bit faster!

Santé

www.deschutesbrewery.com/brew/jubelale

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