Review: Steamworks' Blitzen Xmas Ale

When people bring me beer to sample and review, it always makes my day, but lately it's hard to review beer with a desire to just drink beer and not review, that and workdays get in the way!

The amazing Lloyd over at the Buncy's Beer Fridge brought over some BC/West Coast treats the other day as he was making his weekly trip from Winnipeg to Vancouver. Every week he collects a dozen or more of BC & Canada's finest beers on his journeys and currently has one of the personal best beer fridges in all of Winnipeg!

One of the beers he brought over was Steamworks' Blitzen Christmas Ale. While it isn't Christmas anymore, it's still very much winter here in good ol Manisnowba, so any beer that will warm you up is welcoming. The first thing I notice about the beer is the crazy and attention to detail artwork.. it's perty!

Appearance: Pours a pale golden straw pilsner/lager. Very clear, decent amount of bubbling going on, minimal carbonation, decent amount of foam clasping to the side of the glass. It looks like a lager, but I guess as they say: don't judge a book by its cover? Right?

Aroma: Significantly lighter than I expected, it's a standard European pilsner sort of aroma, a bit of floral hops to it, a bit of a barley graininess, a bit of sweetness from the candi sugar and slight bitterness to it, slightly honey.

Taste: Complex taste there as it has aspects of the European pilsner right off the bat with a barley and floral hopness to it. As the palate adjusts, other flavours make its way there.. For it being a beer with 9% ABV, it's considerably lighter in flavour than most beers at that rate so it will quickly give one a buzz, but it's not bad at all. The sweetness from the candi sugar gives it a different profile, it has a bit of a slight hint of honey (sweet) and bit of a slightly bitterness from the hops, slightly spiced and quickly burns the tongue then diminishes, I don't know what that flavour is.. reminiscent of cinnamon but not close enough. A bit Belgian yeasty but not really that noticeable, so that's good for those who aren't a fan of that.

Overall Thoughts: Due to the use of pilsner malts, it started off as a pilsneresque beer for me, but as I got to finally tasting it, the flavour was more complex with a smidge of Belgian yeast, a nice sweetness (like honey), warming on the tongue and insanely easy drinkability. Quite a decent book in my books.. aaaaand I'm starting to feel the buzz.

The Steamworks' Blitzen Xmas Ale uses Pilsner Malt, Fuggles Stanley Hops, Candi Sugar, has an IBU of 20, and is 9% ABV.

steamworks.com/