Subdued English-styled winter warmer trickles earthen red grape-cherry parchedness into wood-dried Chinook-Fuggle hops. Aloft cocoa malts, sour fig-date finish picks up slim apricot-banana tingle. Marginal twig-leaf tandem fills out thin tobacco backdrop.

Majestic Christmas-styled winter warmer with wafting gingerbread opulence illuminated by definitive honey-soaked brown-sugared cinnamon-clove-allspice-cardamom spicing and lickety-split licorice lollipop lob. Swooning alcohol buzz felt as tertiary orange-bruised banana snip thickens residual sugared medicinal warmth.

Transient frothy-headed amber-deepened ‘Old London Style’  fireside sipping winter ale lacks advertised richness. However, aromatic butternut sweetness, spicy hop bitterness, orange peel souring and sticky pine sap bottom fortify caramel-chocolate insurgence just fine.

Whimsical cinnamon-spiced treat perfect for post-breakfast (with a sticky bun). But like some misguided holiday ales, it loses focus. Instead of concentrating on cinnamon, ginger or nutmeg as the singular pronounced flavor, it dabbles in all and gets murky. Peculiar, yet daringly strong.

Boozy dark-spiced ’08 seasonal sprinkles cinnamon, nutmeg, and coriander atop brown chocolate sweetness. Prune-dried sugarplum-fig illusions sweeten molasses malts countering parched tobacco pinch.

Dubious seasonal brings nut-bread appeal to dried fig-peach swatch and funky vegetal wisp, but blandly sweet caramel malting finds no footing and lazy hazelnut finish lacks expected clove-nutmeg resolve. ’09 re-tasting: harsh honey-dripped cinnamon-toasted gingerbread seasoning receives bristly-hopped astringency.

Expectant winter spiced aromatics too weak for watery prune-dried winter seasonal. Nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice barely register above resinous floral hop bitterness of murky butterscotch-hued ruby-highlighted winter warmer. Meager barleywine illusion sneaks in.

Mahogany-bellied winter warmer brings bright citrus nose, traditional nutmeg-cinnamon seasoning, and thickening cereal-grained cracked wheat confluence to cocoa-molasses passing. Bitter lemon peel tang consumes nut-roasted spiced-hop finish.

Durable sharp-hopped deep-fruited crimson-hued brown ale shuns expectant wintry seasonal (nutmeg-allspice) character for efficient chocolate-pale malt sweetness, expansive vanilla creaminess and toasted barley flaking. Mocha-malted hazelnut-chestnut wisp, acrid red grape tartness and yellow apple vagary dulled by carbolic excess, but thick charcoal-tar bottom boosts emergent raspberry puree lurk.

Decent, not classic, winter warmer with polite sticky malt sweetness taking center stage while minor maple undertones, nutmeg spiciness, and fruity backdrop fill out the finish. Why drink Bud? Brewery defunct: 2000.

Pronounced fruited wine spicing and steep raisin-prune-cherry upwelling differentiate Noel’s 8 .5-ounce winter ale from Scaldis Clovis (both brewed by Bush: 2008). Candi-sugared Belgian yeast stead invites cognac, brandy, cordial liqueur, sweet whiskey and medicinal cherry illusions to enrich maple-sapped chocolate-caramel malt efficiency. High-voltage alcohol whir well suited for holiday consumption.