Day 18 of the 4th Annual Advent-ure Calendar
Day 18: Lager Heads Winter Mischief
Lager Heads coming atcha with Winter Mischief! “Warm up the holidays with this spiced ale! The smooth malty canvas showcases the flavors of cinnamon, ginger and local honey.” This is a beer we think we’ve had but we don’t quite remember because nothing about it seems to stand out to us to jog our memory. So we guess we can treat it as a new to us beer in that case!
Reflections
Beard & Broad
Beard: This is fine, but nothing special. It’s not malty enough to hold up to the spices in it. It also comes off as a bit thin. The carbonation also doesn’t seem to last very long either. I’m not a huge fan of spiced beers, but this doesn’t even have a big spiced character to it, the flavors are just kind of muddled. This might be good for someone who wants to try their first spiced beer, but for a seasoned Christmas ale drinker you’d prob feel it was lacking.
Broad: After a string of delicious beers I’d stock up in my fridge, I knew we were bound to hit one I could pass on and this is that one. It just falls flat for me. It’s very malty, sweet and a bit syrupy but still light? The main flavor I get is honey and you all know how I feel about honey. I think if the holiday spices came through a bit more and the honey and maltiness was tones down, I could drink more of this but for right now, I’m going to have to pass on it.
Adam & Alex
Adam: Unfortunately this beer falls extremely flat to me (both in flavor and carbonation). It’s completely forgettable and next year I will definitely say we never drank this. It’s a generic spiced ale but one thing I will say is that while I love honey, it is so rare that it’s added to beer and improves it at all. Sorry Lager Heads. Your can with a warthog is good. Your spiced ale is not.
Alex: Lager Head’s Winter Mischief is kind of a miss for me. It tastes fairly run of the mill as far as a winter beer is concerned. I mainly taste the spices, and maybe a little bit of honey in the after taste. This doesn’t blow me away, and it’s not something I would actively seek out, but I wouldn’t scoff if offered one.
Scott & Christa
Scott: The Winter Mischief by Lager Heads is a mellow, winter warmer style beer with nice flavor and easy drinkability. And that’s kind of my issue with it, because there’s nothing mischievous about it! It’s a good tasting beer, but I didn’t find anything that separates it from other similar beers. I’d happily recommend it because it tastes good, but it’s not one that I would brag about.
Christa: I don’t mind this beer, it’s a little syrupy for my tastes but not bad overall. I agree with Scott, it’s very drinkable and mellow. I get a lot of cinnamon as I continue to drink so this may not appeal to anyone who doesn’t like overly sweet beverages. For some reason I was expecting more of a tart maltiness. I don’t think of mischief-y beer as being sweet so this threw me. I don’t know, it’s not bad guys but I won’t remember it next year.
Tony & Megan
Tony: This is a new one I haven’t had before and I liked it. It reminds me of the Winter Warmer from Brew Kettle, which I didn’t like; however I do like this one. I realize that makes me sound like a real big hypocritical jerk, but there are several factors in play here. This one is nice and cold, brew kettle was warm when we tried it. Brew kettle was in a bottle, this one is in a can. This one is called “Winter Mischief” which makes me feel dangerous. Maybe I’m just in a better mood tonight? …..you get the picture, lots of factors, but I liked this one. Nice spice and honey flavors and in my opinion it’s a pretty well rounded, light holiday amber ale. It has the traditional spicey holiday beer flavors that I enjoy during this time of year.
Megan: Winter Mischief is a dark beer but feels light. It’s got the same Christmas spices we’ve seen before so again, not sure if it’ll stand out, but I like it. If I were picking this out at the store, I don’t think the design of the can would be enough to pull me in, but it’s a solid choice amongst the others we’ve tasted.