Christmas time has come and gone, but I was sure to celebrate in grand fashion. For Christmas Eve, I took a couple of beers (and a bottle of wine) to the parents house to share with my light-drinking family. I was on the fence between Cold Mountain and Sam Adam's Merry Mischief, but the lower alcohol content in this brew and the fact that my brothers probably couldn't handle a stout made this an easy choice. Highland Brewing (http://www.highlandbrewing.com) is based out of Asheville, NC and therefore is a brewery that I support. Quite surprisingly, this is the first beer I've had from them.
Cold mountain has a pretty good reputation around here and I was looking forward to drinking. The beer poured a red tinged brown color. I poured in such a way to get two fingers of head, light retention, little lacing. I picked up a sweet aroma..brown sugar, some vanilla, maybe even some spices. It had a fairly neutral aroma going for it.
The taste wasn't what I expected. I think it had to do with the vanilla. I'm not an overly huge fan of vanilla, and I find vanilla to mellow out anything I'm drinking. In this case, I could taste the vanilla but it mellowed out the other tastes. There would be some light hoppy aftertaste to go with it. Overall, a solid, but unspectacular brew. Took a few sips to adjust, but it wasn't too bad.
Grade: C
Price paid: $5.99 (22 oz bomber)
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