Well, I'm here to tell you that those days are over. I'm cold. Damned cold. As I sit here in my home office I'm wearing a sweatshirt, long pants, socks, shearling slippers and the space heater is roaring.
When I have to leave the house in this crap this is my battle gear.
After 2.5 weeks in Key West at the beginning of the year for the Key West Literary Seminar I thought I had avoided the Polar Vortex. Yeah. No. That shit just decided it wanted to swing right on back down and smack me in my bald head. So much for my wishful thinking. I've been getting a good lesson in why I want to retreat south to Florida with all the snow birds, Yankee or not.
When the scene is like this, you find yourself wanting a little bit more than most beers can provide.
I stuck my head down in the cooler - It's warmer in there than it is outside, believe me. I should be sticking stuff I want to be really cold out on the back patio tonight. - I knew exactly what I was looking for. Buried within its bowels was a lovely bottle I had set aside for just such occasions.
Cigar City in Tampa has been a favorite of mine for several years. They really can do very little wrong - though their Cucumber Saison didn't exactly make me rush out to buy more, but then again I'm not much of a saison fan anyway - and what they do right they tend to do *really* right. Their Marshal Zhukov Russian Imperial Stout is amazing, and their Maduro Brown is awesome. It's actually even better when it gets up to room temp, which I found very exciting since I was drinking it last on the Schooner Hindu at sunset and I had no koozie with which to keep my beer chilled. That last swallow before we headed back to port was very, very good.
Tonight's bottle just so happened to be one I've had stashed back for more than a year. From what I can tell they've been making Warmer Winter Winter Warmer since 2009, though they might have started in 2008. I'm not really clear, but I do know that this beer is exactly what I needed on this night.
As you can see, this version is the 2012/2013, released in late 2012. At 11% ABV it's no beer for lightweights, but you'd never know it by tasting it.
I poured a big ol' tulip full of this coppery, fairly thick libation and lifted it up to my olfactory receptor. The first thing I got was a nose full of thick, creamy head (Yeah. Make jokes about my wording.) and then I smelled dark fruit, brown sugar, a touch of hops and raisins. Frankly it smelled sweet. Like candy sweet, not like cool sweet, though this kind of sweet is pretty cool as far as I'm concerned. There was absolutely no booze burn. It just didn't smell boozy. It actually smelled a bit tame.
I sloshed a little into my mouth and swirled it around. Tasted like caramels mixed with raisins. The finish was a bit bitter on the back of the tongue, but not cloyingly so. Just enough to let you know that they used 6 different hops in the crafting of this fine brew.
As the bottle warmed up the sweetness became very prominent. Like eating biscuits with plum jelly, it had a buttery, bready, fruity taste to it. I don't know that I'd ever want to drink a whole bottle of this by myself again unless I have a way to keep it cold while drinking it. I could have put it back in the cooler, but that's on the other side of the basement and my office is a lot warmer with the space heater than the tiki bar is.
Overall impression? I like it. I'd better. I still have three more bottles of this iteration in the cellar. I don't even remember buying that much of it, but I have it anyway. Next time I drink it I'll keep it cold during the emptying of the bottle. If I can't have a warmer winter, I guess this winter warmer will suffice for now.
Oh, and just so this post doesn't feel all that cold, here are some pictures from my trip to Key West.
