OPPIGÅRDS Winter Ale

I’m in the Christmas mood and have a fridge full of holiday ales to try out.  Here’s contestant number one:

Appearance:

The beer pours a cloudy dark amber with some visible floaters in the bottle.  The head was thin and disappeared quickly.

Smell:

Hoppy and malty with caramel and biscuit overtones.  Smells like an English or Scandinavian beer.  Seems nicely balanced with some citrus in there, too.  Pretty excited to try this.

Taste:

Hmph.  It’s got a metallic taste to it and is certainly not as pleasant as the smell.  It wasn’t offensive, but it wasn’t mmmm, beer.

I’m trying to really like this (come on, who dislikes Swedish Christmas beer???), but it just…not…very…good. It starts somewhat sweet, then turns quite bitter, and not in a good way.  This lacks focus. What style is this ale supposed to be? It’s called a “winter farmhouse ale”, but there’s very little spice, no real body or richness, barely any yeast or barnyard, and it doesn’t warm me up. As the glass gets warmer, the beer gets more bitter and stale.

Numbers:

Brewed by Oppigard Bryggeri in Hedemora Sweden.

I paid $5 for a 1pt 9oz brown bottle at my beer grocer.

5.5% ABV

Overall:

Not my favorite beer. I really wanted to like this, but just couldn’t get into whatever it was supposed to be.  I would not drink this beer in the future.