About Bison Organic Gingerbread Ale: Bison’s ever popular Gingerbread Ale is a delicately spiced holiday porter brewed with ginger, nutmeg and a touch of cinnamon. This medium-bodied ale boasts an intoxicating aroma of fresh baked gingerbread cookies straight from the oven. Well-balanced flavors of molasses, chewy dark malts and holiday spice dominate the palate, leaving behind a smooth, dry spicy finish.
Food Pairing: Bison’s Gingerbread Ale is an excellent match for all your favorite holiday favorites from roasted sweet potatoes to candied yams, game, duck, butternut squash soup, curries, Thanksgiving turkey, bread pudding, pumpkin pie and cheesecake.
Beer Advocate Score: 78 points
Alcohol by Volume: 6.0%
Cost: $8.99/4-pack
*website: http://bisonbrew.com/bison-organic-seasonal-beers/
This beer tastes flat to me and more like coffee than gingerbread!
ReplyDeleteI must say that I dreaded drinking this beer. I mean, I love gingerbread as much as the next guy, but not really in beer form. But this was much much better than expected mainly because I'm not getting the gingerbread cookies straight from the oven effect. It's no Ommegang and I'd probably prefer it when it wasn't 55 degrees, but I'll take it over the Virginia lager doubleheader. I agree that it does taste flat. And nothing like Bison. B- grade from me.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, the McNary household decided to go with just one case this year mainly due to the fact that Anchor Steam Christmas #2 is still in the fridge from last year. Ro complained about this after I picked up the beer. She's had a sip of all four. Didn't regret not having the lagers. Was pretty upset she didn't get her own Ommegang. She took a sip of this and said "tastes like Jagermeister beer" (she hates Jagermeister) and "without question the worst of the four." So we've got a split household.
I'm surprised InBev doesn't make Jagerbeer. It could be the next Tequiza!
DeleteI'm not a fan of porters and there are few I enjoy. I mostly dislike them. This is not on my hate list, but it's not on my favorites either. It's drinkable, but not really enjoyable for me. I don't taste any gingerbread either. I did have a piece of pumpkin pie with it...but that didn't help. Grade 5 out of 10, D+
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this one - it smelled great, and I like that in a beer. Was very easy to drink. A little on the fizzy side maybe, and a little bit watery tasting, but good flavors of molasses and gingerbread. Yum. I need another one.
ReplyDeleteSo this beer pleasantly surprised me. I was worried it would be gimmicky, but it proved to be a proper ale, even if the style is somewhat unusual. I liked most things about it. The spices were nice and decent maltiness. It didn't quite wow me though. B+.
ReplyDeleteYum Yum Yum. I love dark beers -- this seasonal hit the spot!
ReplyDeleteI admit I cheated and sampled this one while Tony and Tom were putting together the cases. I thought a gingerbread beer sounded good and I was right. I liked it then and I liked it tonight. I don't usually go for dark beers and never for porters but I really like the ginger and nutmeg taste. Perfect winter beer, although I could probably only drink 2 at most.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't really looking forward to this one either. Maybe I'm just old school but I'm generally not a fan of beer with strong additional flavors (ask me my thoughts on Hell or High Watermelon sometime). If you brew a good beer why mask it? That being said this one wasn't horrible. I actually liked it better than the Blue Mountain Lager from the first night which I'm hoping was the low point of not just the 24 Days but my beer drinking year. C-
ReplyDeleteWas dreading this beer b/c I hate gingerbread cookies. And maybe b/c I wasn't expecting much I actually thought it was ok. I don't think I would run out and purchase it myself but it was decent (much better than that peach beer we tasted). To me the spices were mild enough to enjoy the beer.
ReplyDeleteRating: 6
I didn't really get the gingerbread flavor I was promised it was more coffee flavor. Other than the false promise, I enjoyed this one and think it would be perfect to drink while watching the snow fall. I give it a B-. Now time to go make a gingerbread martini and watch the Griswalds.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big fan of food flavored beers. Definitely prefer the beer flavored beers. That being said, however, I really enjoyed this one. I am a big fan of dark beers and porters and I thought the ginger bread would ruin it, but I was pleased to be incorrect. Though dark, I found the flavor light and crisp. I'd give it an B+.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Yes, I know beer IS food.
P.S. This is fun! Thanks again to all who made it possible.
ReplyDeleteI like this one. I can hardly taste the gingerbread, though. I kinda wish the gingerbread taste was a bit stronger.
ReplyDeleteI second that emotion.
DeleteI liked this more than the Omme Gang ale everyone else seemed to hold in such high esteem, but less than our second lager, putting this in second place to date for me. Interesting flavors and not so bitter, but I agree a bit flat.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I drank it at home because hard to order in a crowded bar look cool.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one however I'm pretty biased towards Porters. Definitely the best so far. I screwed up by cracking this open straight out the fridge and not letting the beer warm up some. The gingerbread really came thru without being overpowering as I was finishing the bottle. Since I'm biased towards dark beer, this one gets a solid B overall. However compared to other porters this gets a C+. Without the gingerbread spices this beer wouldn't be able to stand on its own. The brewery should have perfected the porter first and then incorporated the spices. Here it seems like they added gingerbread to spice up an otherwise forgetable beer.
ReplyDeleteIn my house, my wife and my daughters love to bake so the holidays are full of "baked from scratch" goodies including gingerbread. So I had visions of gingerbread flavors dancing in my head. While it was good, it was not really what I was expecting. I love rich, dark beers and this was just a little too watery in terms of mouthfeel for me. I think I might try another one, but let it warm to just below room temperature and see if that makes a difference.
ReplyDeleteEvery Christmas season, my kids insist they want to make gingerbread. Gingerbread houses, gingerbread cookies... I even have three (count 'em) pans in the shape of a freaking gingerbread man that are good for nothing other than baking freaking gingerbread (I did not buy them - all gifts). And every year, the kids take one bite and say, "Ew, Mommy, I don't like that." Right. So no gingerbread in our house.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I really liked this beer. The SABF theme this year was porters and I gained a new appreciation for the style. The aroma was great (as Shirley said), and the gingerbread was not overpowering - just a little touch. A bit watery/thin in the middle, but good start and ending. For a true porter lover, this probably would have been a mediocre beer, but for me, who will crack open a Pipeline Porter as soon as look at it, this was just my speed. Wish I'd had two of them. Tis the season and all.
Like others who fear sweet or over spiced beers, I drank this with some trepidation. While better than expected, I still didn't love it. In the end it was a solid dark ale, but left me longing for something with a little more body or more punch. I'll give it a C.
ReplyDeleteI read the comments before I drank this beer and dreaded even trying it tonight after having had Lagunitas Brown Shugga and a pumpkin homebrew deliciousness. I was looking forward to this all day, though. I've never heard of gingerbread beer and decided I would go full steam ahead and actually buy some gingerbread cookies to pair it with. So I laid out some Trader Joe's frosted mini gingerbread men and poured the bottle into a nice pint glass.
ReplyDeleteOne feeling followed: disappointment. The head was about 3 fingers upon pouring, then settled down to something resembling a fizzled out glass of Pepsi within about a minute. There wasn't any gingerbread on the nose for me, just toasted malts and a light, roasted coffee aroma. Same with the flavor: not much there and it even tasted watered-down. I thought maybe I'd try and punch up the flavor pairing it with the cookies and ended up just wanting more and more cookies and less and less of this beer. With all of the wonderful seasonal beers and ciders this time of year, there are plenty more delicious options out there. I'm looking forward to those as we move into Day 5.
For what it's worth, if you see it, try the Hardywood Gingerbread Stout (Richmond area brewery). You will NOT be disappointed! :-)
DeleteThanks for the recommendation, Sarah! I'll have to check that one out. I love the idea, just hated the execution for this particular offering from Bison.
DeleteI've been to two bars named "The Gingerbread Man" in my life. The first was in State a College, Pennsylvania. The other was in Austin, Texas. Both were memorable as my visits to each revolved around a college football weekend. At Penn State, I watched Adam Taliaferro miraculously run onto the field, leading his team in their season opener against the Miami Hurricanes. He had suffered a spinal injury the previous year, and the fact that he was able to run onto the field was quite moving. Unfortunately for the Lions, Miami didn't get the memo about it being Penn State's special day, and they proceeded to demolish JoePa's boys. In Austin, I watched Vince Young lead Texas to a lopsided victory over a highly ranked Texas Tech squad. I met Kirk Herbstreit that weekend. He's a handsome fella.
ReplyDeleteSo the gingerbread beer didn't really taste like gingerbread, but I still liked it. Actually, that's probably the reason I liked it. I'd drink this one again.
Hook'em!
Hook 'em Horns!!!
DeleteI'm finally back in the drinking game after a 3.5 week absence and I dove right in with beer #4. I like gingerbread anything as much as the next guy, never really associated it with beer. I thought this was a pretty good porter, didn't really taste the gingerbread though there were some spices in there. My wife Sarah described it as "prickly ginger dancing on her tongue". And no, to my knowledge, she was not high when she said that.
ReplyDeleteAnother winner in my book. Good idea and good execution. This is why I look forward to sampling winter seasonal beers. I would drink more of this if I came across it.
ReplyDeleteNot a big fan. I usually enjoy porters, but this tasted bland and flat to me. I didn't even want to finish it. Worst of the bunch so far.
ReplyDeleteWhich one of you tree huggers picked out an ORGANIC beer? Seriously, one sure fire way to piss me off is to tell me I have to go to Whole Foods to pick out some pretentious organic crap. This isn't a beer, it's some hippie, weird-flavored holiday season alcoholic wanna be. Next time, save us all some trouble and just pick up a 6 pack of Zima for old times sake. This was nasty, lame, and I feel like it was probably brewed in some north pole sweatshop from the tears of underage elves. I had to drink like 6 more random beers out of my fridge just to feel better about myself after this debacle.
ReplyDelete^Like
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEGlayrvdGg
DeleteI'm apparently having problems posting on this from my iphone...so I apologize some of these are a few days late. I couldn't taste the gingerbread flavor, and instead mine tasted like an old stout that had been sitting out for a while. Hoped for more on this one.
ReplyDelete