We have reviewed several other Christmas Ales on this site.  Some of them have been spiced and others not.  Some were good, despite having cinnamon, cloves, or other flavors added.  Corsendok and Bison were examples of two good Christmas Ales.

Let me start this review by saying that this Ale was not my style.  Some of you may love it…you can still tell it is well-made, but I don’t like some of the flavors.  Additionally, Schlafly does make some very good Ales (like their Bourbon Barrelled beers), so don’t think that I’m being militant against the company (at least there is one company in St. Louis making good beers). 

The color was a good start on the beer, being that it was a lovely coppery-bronze.  It was very attractive and active in the bottle, which gave it a nice creamy head. 

Cloves and orange zest were very apparent in the beer, cloves more than anything else.  There really wasn’t too much going on beyond this in the beer.

Alcohol warmth was obvious upon drinking the beer.  Bitter orange zest started from the first sip to the very end; orange was certainly the most prominent quality in the beer.  The cloves were also present, which is very common in many wheat beers (despite the fact that they actually contain no cloves).  Near the end of the beer, there were notable grain notes with a finishing dryness.

Do you know when you eat that white part of the orange underneath the peel?–That was the thing that I tasted in the beer, which I didn’t like.  Like I said, some people like spiced beer…I’m not a fan if it’s too much, which I think is the case with this beer.