Petrus Winterbier
Caramel-red beer of high fermentation. This Christmas child of the Petrus family is only brewed throughout the month of November. Its soft aroma is the perfect start for cosy holiday season.
3.2
335 reviews
Harelbeke, Belgium
Community reviews
Reddish-amber, dark, cloudy ale. Active, off-white head. Aroma is like stone, moss, spring water, and cinnamon. The taste is full, malty, cinnamony, and bitter. It is not too sweet as I feared it would be. It is actually quite good. The bitterness from the hops comes in late to crush the maltiness in pleasurable fashion. Here’s to drinking a winter ale in summer in Texas!
Clear red-brown with a decent off-white head. Aroma of caramel and sweet fruit. Taste is fruit, toast, and sugar. Medium bodied, smooth.
750, corked and baled, at Budapest Bistro (Mukilteo). Pours a crystal clear medium rubied brown with a towering tan rocky head that takes forever and ever to settle. Big banana, caramel, and brown bread nose. Creamy medium body with lively carb. Treacly banana, caramel, shortbread, and toffee on the mid palate. Very malty with lots of yeasty esters. Sweet finish. Overly sugary.
Pours a clear, deep amber color with a small off-white head. Aroma of berries, winter spices, caramel malts, cereal grains, and candi sugar. The flavor has a lot of spices, mixed fruits, and caramel malts. Medium-bodied, with a slick, spicy mouthfeel and moderate carbonation. Pretty good.
Bottle from Piwiarnia Gambrinus (Blue City in Warsaw). nuts, hay, cereal, spruce, citrus, woody, rotten eggs, cooked vegetables, amber, sparkling, brown foam, medium sweetness, lightly bitter, heavily sour, umami, full body, creamy, average carbonation, bitter,
Not sure how to rate this one. I have had it on two occasions and I wouldn’t have thought it was the same beer except for the label.
First tasting: Bottle. Poured a dark, amber with an average, white head. Slightly sour aroma with malts, caramel and some hop notes. Flavor was malty but slightly sour with caramel and hop notes.
Second tasting: Bottle. Poured a hazy orangish-red with a small, beige head. Sweet aroma with malt, spice (coriander, clove) and orange. Sweet malty flavor with spice and orange notes. Dry finish but with a lot of alcohol flavor.
The first tasting was much better
Bottle:
Medium vast creamy head that disappears slow on top of a dark ruby colored beer.
Smell darker fruits, prunes, strawberry, toasted malts, cream cheese, light sour notes and cooky dough.
Taste toasted malts, fruits, hint of sweets, hint of barleys, light bitter.
Low to medium bitter
Fruity barley aftertaste which vanishes quick.
Low to medium carbo, tingly mouthfeel, more than a medium body and a watery texture.
Maybe a bit of a lower/watery body, but next to that pretty tasty.
750ml bottle. Rating #310. Very murky dark brown pour with a light beige head. Tart apple aroma, a little caramel sweetness and raisins in an underlying layer of aroma. Flavor is a little sweet, caramel apple with a bit of tartness in the background and with a pretty smooth aftertaste. Nice. (2064)
Beautiful color. Very slight funkiness to aroma-pleasantly so. Malty start and finish. Spicy but not overly so. Pours a wonderful light tan head.
Clear reddish brown color. Thin almond head. Nose is nutmeg and yeast. Flavor is raisin and spices with an herbal element in the finish.
On tap at Frisco Grille and Cantina. Pretty cherry cola colored pour with a small head. Aroma holds tart cherry, cranberry, sweet candied sugars- sort of like a combination of Rodenbach and a lighter Belgian ale. Flavor is holds mostly dark fruit, raisin, plum, and sweet malt. Wish it was more sour. Not great.
Pour is a murky brown with a small white head. Aroma is some candi sugar with some fruity tartness. Flavor is a little brown sugar and raisin. A little dusty barnyard follows. The aroma and flavor are some what light with a nice earthy malt base. Good for a sample.
Dezent fruchtiger Antrunk, dann kommt direkt eine starke würzige Note auf, die sich später noch stark steigert. Im Mittelteil sind neben der stärker werdenden Würzigkeit, zu der in der selben Stärke auch ein Malzaroma zählt, Kräutertöne zu erkennen, ein hopfiger Ton rundet das Ganze ab. Im Nachgeschmack steht der Kräuterton vorerst im Vordergrund, als dieser schwächer wird, tritt ein dunkles Malzaroma an diese Stelle, welches dann angenehm ausklingt. Gelungen, keine Frage!
Test vom 10.10.2007, Gebinde: Glasflasche Noten: 12,12,12,12,12,12 - 12,00
Labeled as Petrus Winter Ale. 750 ml corked, caged, and gold foiled brown bottle. I don’t know what vintage it is.
Pours a pretty clear brownish read with an active white head that recedes quickly to some okay lacing.
The smell is estery, fruity, and alcoholic, but it smells great, definitely a winter beer, though im enjoying it in the summer.
The taste is fruit to the max. There is hints of grape and toffee as well, but overall it is smooth and decadent. The mouthfeel is a bit overcarbonated and watery though, it happens in Petrus beers.
This is a great beer that paired well with Jamaican beef brisket, fontina/garganzola cheese veggie pizza, and spicy rum black beans.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 08-03-2010 22:24:23
Brownish red in color with a finger thick white bubbly head. Aroma is quite spicy and sweet - caramel, sugar, cloves, nutmeg. Flavor is pretty heavy on the sweetness followed by a nutmeg and spice finish. Sweetness kind of overpowers, but it isn’t bad.
On tap at Holy Grale. Aroma of some spice, not heavy, but also with a background of what you’d expect from a bruin (but more subtle). Taste starts slightly estery-sweet, followed by the winter spices which persist through the aftertaste but never overwhelm. The underlying body of this beer could be more assertive. The taste ends with little to moderate cloying, a mix of bitterness, malt, and the spice. This beer definitely improves with a little warming. Do not serve too cold.
On tap at Wildeman. Dark brown with thin head. Nose of sugar, malts. Taste is way, sweet. Pretty good. Nice Christmas beer, to be sure.
Bottle.
A - Glowing apricot color with a large, rocky, foamy, frothy white head. Decent retention but only sparse patchy lace left.
S - Strong tart fruit and spice (clove, cinnamon, all spice, etc.) aroma with a faint alcohol and maybe phenol aroma. Hints of caramel and bready malt.
T - Like the nose, there is plenty of tart fruit. Green apple and sour/tart cherry are strongest. Some lemon zest as well. Spice also quite strong throughout with christmasy cooking spices. A little bit of sweet maltiness in the background. Alcohol is much more present than the 6.5% would suggest.
M - Lighter side of medium body with a bit above average carbonation. A touch too thin. Zesty feel.
D - A little too much spice and tartness compared to the maltiness for me given the style. Enjoyable in small doses.
Notes: Decent winter brew, but I wasn’t getting as much BSDA flavors as I hoped. Tart fruit and cooking spice dominates with a good amount of alcohol heat. Nice in small doses for a winter night, but not something I necessarily crave.
Bottle: pours a milk chocolate brown, thick fluffy tan head. nice lacing. Nutty, coffee, dried prunes, raisins, oak, Flemish yeast
Taste- Sour, citrus, apple with some sugars. bubbly carbonation with a heavy mouth feel. Not my thing
On tap at Le Cercuella in Brussels on 12-09-10 (4,00 Euro). Amber, crystal clear. Very enjoyable and drinkable. Nothing overly standout but would definitely drink again.
Tap (Delerium Taphouse, Brussels)
6 Served cold, aroma muted. Cakey and christmas spice - clove and mixed peel
4 Rich red, small head, settles to a ring
7- Hard to justify a big score, as it isn’t a big flavour. However, what’s there is delicious, and slips down so easily. It’s not a bland beer, there’s a decent caramelly body, and the pleasant spices from the aroma too.
4 Refreshing palate, but a little sugary. Crisp carbonation.
14 All round tasty brew, spices very pleasantly restrained, and I like it that way.
Sampled in a small snifter from a 750 ml bottle at Lunar Brewing Co. for a local cellar tasting event. Poured an orange/amber hue with small bubbled, off white and modest head foam. The aroma was light spice and fruit tartness. Effervescent and spritzy carbonation were present in a medium to light body. Not bad, with some Flemish sour characteristics noticeable.
Light tart fruit aroma. Deep amber with no head. Dull apple flavor with tart notes.
Bottle, pours red with off white head. Nose is very sweet, candy sugar with plums and pears. Flavors are sweet plums and brown sugar, dusty, pears. Thin and rather bland, really lacking assistance from hops and yeast characters.
Bottle at work. Poured brown colour with a beige head. Aroma and flavour of caramel, yeast, fruit, spice and malt.
Dark brown, big head, decent lacing... Floral, a little funky, a bit dark fruity a touch sour.. A little vineous, some light funk cherry a little fruity, medium bodied... Very decent, pretty complex for the ABV...
(Draught at Raatskelder, Roosendaal) The beer poured dark brown and clear. Its head was light brown, medium sized and dense. Aroma had malts and caramell. Palate was medium bodied with medium carbonation. Flavours were malts, banana, sweetness, caramell, mildly hops and low bitterness. Aftertaste was sweet. Yucky sweet mess that looked quite nice.
Pours a five-finger+ off-white pillowy head that takes forever to fade leaving a good lace. Clear amber color despite a ton of yeast left in bottle. Good carbonation and medium bodied. Apple and malt nose. Flavor is sour apple and yeast, not what I was expecting for a winter ale but not bad. Pricey at $18.00 for a 750ml bottle from a Tully’s Beer & Wine Wells, ME.
Earlier Rating: 12/26/2003 Total Score: 3.7
Pours with a two-fingered white head that fades slowly and leaves a good lace. Medium carbonation. Amber color with a lot of chunky bits . Nose is malty with a hint of raisins Starts with malts; finishes on the sweet side with a hint of raisins. Medium bodied.
Pours clear reddish brown with off white head, aroma has yeast, spices, some fruit. Taste is sweet honey, fig and raisin, yeast and spices with a slightly sweet dry finish. Not bad.
Bottle. Amber colour with an off-white head. Aroma is sweet, malt, caramel, spices. Flavour is sweet, yeast, caramel, apple, sugar, brown sugar, dried fruit. Medium body. OK beer.