Beer Review: Blue Mountain Brewery’s Lights Out Holiday Ale

Posted by Edmond | Beer, Beer Review, General | Posted on November 15th, 2009

Well folks here is the first year I actually took the plunge and picked up some Blue Mountain Lights Out Holiday Ale. Honestly, I am not sure why I have never had this before.  Judging by what I’ve had tonight this is a very nice beer that can be easily enjoyed by anyone.
Before I dig into my review let me know say this, what I found to be unusual is this isn’t your normal winter/holiday ale.  Instead this is labeled as an Old Ale which generally is more of a roasted nutty character.  Unlike a typical winter ale which has a sweet malty backbone.  So keep this in mind as you read my review.

This particular bottle, I took out of my beer fridge and let warm up.  I wanted to ensure that the aromas and taste came through.  Doing so had an affect on the pour and head.  I got about 1/2 fingers worth of head in the beer.  It was fizzy and quickly disappeared.  As I drank a couple of other ones that I did not warm up the head was much fuller and stuck around a while.  The aroma had a slight roast malt character.  I also got hints of black coffee in the smell.  The beer it self poured a deep maple syrup brown.  No light really through so I couldn’t see if any carbonation was occurring.  My first taste and I pick up on a nutty taste.  This quickly becomes more of a roasted nut.  The mouth feel leaves a black coffee bitterness but it is pretty mild.  I also found that it ended dry and so any residual after taste didn’t stick around for to long.   Over all I really liked this beer.  It was nice departure from the typical winter ale and very easy to drink.  I would definitely mark this one up to trying again each year.

7% ABV

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