Eagle Brewery Winter Warmer (Sainsbury’s) By @SpectreUK

I thought my winter warmer would be the sauna at my local gym. Mind you, the steam room can be pretty good to for warming up my old bones. This Winter Warmer was provided by the local supermarket, and produced by Eagle Brewery, in Bedfordshire. At 5.3% in volume and brewed with Challenger hops, this dark winter ale should provide some fruitiness to go with the roasted sweet malted barley.

The back of the bottle recommended steak and ale pie to go with this Winter Warmer. I'm opting for a Chinese takeaway of Pork Yuk Sung to start with, and then Peppered Steak with noodles, which isn't too far away, I suppose. I also noticed on the back of the bottle this beer is a whopping 236 calories, so after a slight adjustment to the amount of chocolate and ice cream I was going to have for afters, I popped open the bottle.

As an aside, where my daily calorie intake is concerned, I'm just waiting for the juggle on Christmas Day. I don't eat breakfast, and have around 2,200 calories a day as well as doing a huge amount of exercise in order to keep my weight down for my poor old knee. You would not believe the weighing up of a little light lunch to Christmas dinner of belly pork, crackling, roasted potatoes, veg, and pigs in blankets compared to Christmas Pudding and brandy custard, but we do it every year, and it always tastes really good.

On opening this Winter Warmer there was a deep rich fruity and malty aroma from the dark brown ale inside. Gosh this is a flavourful beer, with an initial biscuity almost burnt toast flavour as the roasted barley malt came straight into play, and then the fruitiness from the hops provided more depth, a little spice and a cutting bitterness. This Winter Warmer then smoothed out into the aftertaste with what I'm sure was a little chocolate malt for afters. Mmm… Perfect for a dark snowy night outside sitting watching an old movie in front of a heater, wrapped in a good thick blanket. Cheers.