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Bottle/Tap: Bottle

Not all winter beers have to be porters or imperial stouts.  It is possible to have a full favored beer that isn’t the color of night: enter the wassail.  Wassail is a traditional beverage that has an interesting history.  The term itself is most associated with that carol that is to help ring in the New Year as opposed to Christmas.  There are many brewers that put out a fine wassail but I wanted to try a new company and see if Full Sail was any different.

For the most part, this style of beer has a dark red body and has some burned qualities.  I noticed that this brand tasted just fine when it was cold from the fridge.  As the beer warmed up I found that it was smooth and pretty tasty.  Something about the flavor of the beer gave it a warming sensation as I drank it, which was nice since it was a cold evening.

Toward the end I was surprised that the beer had a creamy texture to the body and was much better at room temperature.  At 7% alcohol this was a strong beer and I wished that I had an extra bottle.  No matter, I was just as happy to sit and sip this one.

This is not an uncommon beer to find in many winter variety packs and you shouldn’t be deterred from it since it isn’t a normal lager.  When you think about it, this should be the beer of New Year’s Eve to keep true with the history and tradition of the drink itself.  If you get adventurous and decide to make your own wassail this year, let me know how it turns out.  If you are like me and don’t want to bother with the preparation, find a six pack of Full Sail, or any wassail, and practice counting back from 10.