Paddock Wood Winter Ale

I received a couple bottles of Winter Ale from Saskatchewan's Paddock Wood Brewing Co. a couple of week's ago and decided to get into one this morning. The beer was released back in November in limited quantities alongside their Grande Reserve Winter Ale. Only 300 of the latter were released in 750ml champagne bottles where they have undergone secondary fermentation.

This Winter Ale, brewed in the Belgian Dubbel style, and inspired by a classic Belgian brewery. The Belgian brewery is unknown to me, but Steve Cavan, owner of Paddock Wood, mentioned that instead of replicating the original recipe they received from said brewery he would add his own elements to it, which included creating their own candi sugar to use in the beer.

"In one of those 'friend of a friend of a friend' relationships, we have recipes direct from the source. It gave us a basic parameter for brewing a Dubbel, but we decided not to replicate it for various reasons. One being we had to make the Candi ourselves. That was very cool, boiling the sugar to about 300F and adding water," said Cavan.

It pours a lovely deep copper with a streak of red hues shining through. The nose contains whiffs of Belgian yeast, warming alcohol notes, some roasted malt and grape skins.

Flavour is nicely balanced. Good carbonation level with some sweet caramel malt, complex sugars, steeped raisins, christmas cake, and a hint of spice in the finish. Lingering on the palate, the Winter Ale provides a nicely warming affect with it's 8% alcohol content while going down nice and easy. It's well rounded, full of flavour and begs for more.

From the label:
Winter Ale warms the cockles of your heart on a cold winter evening. A complex blend of malts makes a rich toasted caramel profile