Exeunt, Pursued by a Beer: The Winter's Ale by Summit Brewing Company

When I get to the Minnesota section of the beer coolers at my local liquor repository, there's usually a lot of Surly, a little Schell, and a selection of Summit beers that falls between the two. Almost without fail there are six-packs of their Sága IPA and, because I've watched a surfeit of Nordic noir TV shows, I always think of a scene from the Swedish/Danish program The Bridge when I see them. In the show, two cops seek a killer and one of them is named Saga. Upon seeing that IPA I always hear her partner, Martin, yell "Saga!" - pronounced "say-guh" and not like the term for a Viking tale of derring-do.

Summit Brewing Company opened in 1986, a member of what I suppose is the second wave of microbrewery openings. Or does the mid-80s still count as first wave? Regardless, it's the grandpappy of Minnesota craft breweries. Yeah, August Schell opened around the time the Civil War was getting underway but that makes it a legacy brewery, not a product of the late 20^th century microbrewing trend. If you look at Wikipedia's list of Minnesota breweries, most of them have opened in the past 10 years and all except 4 opened this century. Were Minnesotans just hidebound in their love for Hamm's? Or maybe the Gopher State was saddled with some restrictive beer laws until fairly recently.

While Summit brews enough beer to be in the top 25 craft breweries nationally, I rarely see it mentioned. Perhaps this is simply because I don't follow many Minnesotans on Twitter. But, if they are brewing somewhere in the vicinity of 120,000 barrels a year, somebody is drinking it. This humility is typical of the Upper Midwest where braggadocio and ostentatiousness are left to coasties.

Truth be known, I don't drink a lot of Summit but I have some every few months. Their Dakota Soul and Keller Pils are both great beers. Feeling like it had been too long since their beer had graced my refrigerator, I picked up their Winter Ale, it being winter and all. Minnesota is just next door and they feel the brunt of Old Man Winter just like we do so it should hit the spot.

A small off-white head sat atop a sea of deep, dark reddish brown. Sadly, the foam dissipated rather quickly. Still, it looked like a heady brew. Overall, it had a rather sweet aroma full of raisin and toffee. "Very bock-like thus far," I thought to myself. "Nice."

And it tasted not totally unlike a bock too. There was a moderate malt sweetness with a little raisin in there as well as some bread. Maybe even a hint of tobacco somewhere in the background as well. It was well carbonated with a nice fizzy bite. But, unlike bocks generally, it was oddly light-bodied. The finish was pleasantly dry with hops giving a lasting peppery/minty zing that really lingered.

I cannot honestly say this was a bad beer, because it wasn't. However, it was rather thin to my taste. The flavors were all quite good but I was expecting a bit more of them to build something headier for a winter seasonal. Very much on the plus side was the minty burst after I swallowed. It left a burning sensation on my tongue that was truly bracing, though not excessive. It was wonderful.

This was my first taste of Winter Ale so I cannot compare it to batches from years past. Maybe it was lighter than usual this year. Until next winter, I will stick with Dakota Soul or Keller Pils.

Junk food pairing: To compensate for the lack of body, get yourself a bag of cinnamon sugar lefse chips and consume liberally.