Day 2 of the 2nd Annual Advent-ure Calendar

Day 2: Lager Heads Brewing Company Winter Mischief

Lager Heads is another local brewery based out of Medina, Ohio. There’s not a whole lot of information on the brewery or beer online. We’ve had some of their beers at local beer festivals but none of them stick out in our minds. About Winter Mischief from their website: “The smooth malty canvas showcases the flavors of cinnamon, ginger and local honey.” Basically, your generic Christmas beer description so we don’t know what to expect.

REFLECTIONS

Beard & Broad
Beard: To me this almost smells like a Christmas beer, but not.  It kind of tastes like one, but…not.  Where Holly Jolly tastes like a subtly fruity/hoppy gingerbread house, this tastes like a stale one.  All of the flavors seem muted to me, just wasn’t a fan.

Broad: Well, I’m still sick. Today I really can’t taste anything. So my initial thoughts after tasting this beer were wow, this is surprisingly good. I expected it to be not great based on the bottle and the little information we found on the beer. Then I remembered I can’t really taste anything. I really tried to decipher something, anything from this beer and I can’t. It tastes just like a generic Christmas beer. I would be willing to try this beer when I felt better.

Adam & Alex
Adam: I love the initial nose of honey but it doesn’t come through on the flavor to me at all. This is a disappointing mix of generic holiday spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger) but nothing comes through to stand on its own as a good flavor. Literally “generic” is how I would describe this.

Alex: Second beer, second beer! After the amazing-ness of yesterday’s beer, this one really falls flat for me. All I really taste are the spices, and it’s kind of lackluster for me.

Scott & CT
Scott: Not crazy about this beer. I’m not sure why though. Cheers.

CT: This beer is good, not great. Holly Jolly is a tough act to follow but especially because these beers are very similar. There’s definitely hints of cinnamon and honey which work so well usually. I could drink a few of these and have a perfectly acceptable evening. It’s kind of like a blind date that sounds great on paper but then you meet and there’s no spark. Yeah, you could have nice house, a great credit score, but I wouldn’t stick around for dessert.

Louie & Jenny
Louie: Lager Head’s Winter Mischief is another local gem in the Christmas beer scene. It has a lovely dark amber color and delivers on strong cinnamon and honey flavors. Much heavier than beer #1, Holly Jolly. With its high ABV and flirty labeling, this could replace Great Lakes Christmas Ale as the six pack of choice to bring to holiday gatherings.

Jenny: I love a dark brown ale, and this one didn’t disappoint. You’ll be sure to please any crowd if you bring this 8% alcohol brew with a cunning label to your holiday parties. If your friends like their beer with good head, this one may be less fussy on the top, but it’s packed with rich and savory honey and malt spices that leave behind only a very subtle aftertaste which lessens with every sip. While I like it a lot, I don’t see myself drinking more than two of this heavy bodied brew.