England is known for many things, among them are: Fish and Chips, Big Ben, the super group Oasis, the lesser-known Beatles, Soccer Hooligans, and tea. However, let it be known that tea-BAGGING is an American invention. Suck on that, hooligans. Nevertheless, among England's varied list of accolades, brewing good beer should be added.  

Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale



According to this brew's distributor's web site, Merchant du Vin, "Samuel Smith's Old Brewery at Tadcaster was founded in 1758 and is Yorkshire's oldest brewery." They were brewing beer before America had even been founded yet, however it took them over 200 years to finally import it to the states, stingy bastards. 

Winter Welcome, indeed. With an interesting combination of deep, malty, and sweet scents, I have a good feeling about this one. However, when poured the brew's appearance is misleading, the aroma makes you think of a dark, Guinness-like beer, but instead it's a rich amber color with a sizable head, which dissipates to a reasonable cap after a few minutes. This beer tastes better than it smells and it has a lot going on. It's lighter for a winter brew, but that's only because it goes down so smooth and finishes clean. It's slightly sweet with fruity notes—I taste a little apple AND cinnamon—but then it bitters out a little with a heavy malty flavor, not a bad way to finish. Unlike a lot of beers that have a strong beginning flavor and then teeter out, or like an IPA where the front flavor is weak, but the end flavor never ends, this brew has a definitive beginning, middle, and end, with perfect layers. At points it tastes rich and robust, whereas other times it has a sweet light feel to it. This is a beer that I could polish 3 or 4 off without pause for thought. 

Now, some may take issue with the fact that this isn't a "standard" winter brew because it's lighter in color, rather than dark as midnight, and it has more flavors than just the dark, rich mocha taste. In my opinion this is a great winter brew that would be perfect around a campfire, with some juicy meat roasting over a spit, while talking about guy shit, like boobs and football and stuff. Way to go, you limey bastards!
 ***

Looking for funny T-shirts? Type www.scapegoatink.com into your web browser or simply click the banner below.