Beer Profile: Southern Tier’s 2Xmas

Profiled by Ken Carman fro Professor Goodales

This is skewed too far towards ginger. And it’s not the best side of ginger. It’s not “bad.” It’s just unbalanced.

The body is medium the ginger is way the hell upfront, allspice and cinnamon are way in the background. Brown with hazy highlights. Mouthfeel is a firm medium body with ginger as the main focus. The malt is mostly pale with some darker malts, mostly slighter roast but they too are way behind the ginger which dangles from the roof of the mouth and refuses to let go. The warmer it gets, the more annoying the ginger becomes.

Mouthfeel, again ginger with about a moderate body and low, but OK, soft, carbonation. A tad slick.

Aroma is ginger, more ginger and, ah, ginger. Again there is a malt background but it’s elusive, hides behind the ginger.

Tad off white head, pillow. Slight chill haze. Brown at probably 24 srm with no highlights due to haze. A very dense looking quaff due to the haze. The head nags as if it’s wants to hang around, briefly, then fades to the edges of the glass.

There’s a great brown ale based begging to be let out behind a ginger gate here.

93 with a 97 for style on Rate Beer, 84 on Beer Advocate. I can’t go higher than 3.

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”