Ninkasi Brewing Company - Sleigh'r

Hey everyone! Been a long time since I posted a beer blog. Hell, it's been over a month! Quite a bit has gone on. Been real sick for all of November. Still not out of the woods. Also, just haven't been in the mood to blog. Kind of how things go I guess. The "need" to post a blog... sort of kills things sometimes.

But fear not, I'm back tonight with my November BOTM. That's right, I haven't forgotten about this. Tonight I'm drinking the winter seasonal from Ninkasi Brewing Company. Yep, I'm drinking Sleigh'r! Clearly a take on the band SLAYER (one of my personal favorites) and Santa's Sleigh.

This is a 7.2% Dark Double Alt Ale which I think pretty much means, winter warmer. I've been into these quite a bit this winter so I'm looking forward to this one. Hell, I've had it for a month now and just haven't had a chance to crack it open. So without any further delay, let's pop the top and I'll give you my thoughts on SLEIGH'R!!!

The Sleigh'r pours out a really dark mahogany to ruby red when held up to the light. Really nice color on this one. There's about a half finger of a frothy white head, probably not really white but it's not brown or even beige. The head doesn't stick around long, much like Santa... eating his cookies and vanishing. Son of a bitch... oh, sorry. Got side-tracked. This beer looks pretty nice. Let's get the nose.

I'm immediately hit with some winter spices. Nutmeg, a little bit of cinnamon, a little clove, maybe even a hint of coriander. Some sweet caramel and maybe the slightest touch of molasses.  There's some dark fruits here, namely some cherry, even a bit of an apple character. Those are playing off the nutmeg and clove pretty nicely. I'm picking up a bit of banana as well. Maybe a subtle hint of banana bread. This definitely has some hints of sugar cookie. Again, something Santa would definitely enjoy... if he wasn't skipping over my house... ugh, I did it again. Sorry. Sleigh'r smells pretty good, maybe a little more subtle than some of the other winter warmers I've had recently.

Interesting flavors up front on this one. I'm picking up a lot of the cherry and dark fruits, the hint of apple right up front. Sides of the mouth you get the sweetness from the caramel and the richness of the molasses. Middle of the mouth and back end of this beer you get the spices but they are very subtle. You get a nice smack of pine/spruce that I wasn't really getting on the nose. This beer finishes pretty dry and the pine lingers for a while. There's some of the nutmeg and coriander dancing around in the back as well. I'm picking up some alcohol as well, a bit of a rum perhaps. It's not overpowering but I'm definitely picking it up.

So overall, this is pretty good. For a winter type of beer I think it hits all the right notes that one would expect from a winter ale but nothing really jumps out and grabs you. I'd say it's a bit more balanced than a lot of the winter warmers that end up being pine bombs. I like those a lot too. I think this could use a little more malt sweetness, maybe some caramel to sort of cut the back end of this to cut the bitterness. But besides that, I like this and I'd say it's worth checking out, if only for the name along. Come on, SLEIGH'R!!!

Rating: B+