21st Amendment's Fireside Chat

I heard a lot about this beer from my instagram/facebook beer buddies, so I naturally had to pick up a six pack of it. I picked up the six pack as an X Mas day brew, to have with X Mas dinner. I saved one beer to review, and it was near impossible to impose enough self control to make that possible. Anyway, here's my write up of the brew:

Name: Fireside Chat
Brewery: 21st Amendment
Location: San Francisco, CA
Style: Winter Warmer/Winter Spiced Ale
ABV: 7.9%
Packaging: Can
Price: $9.99/six pack of 12 oz cans.

Appearance: Very, very dark mahogany in color, with a 2-3 finger thick caramel cream colored head. Light lacing around the glass that falls rather quickly.

Aroma: Clove and nutmeg, as well as cinnamon. Warm apple cider notes as well, coupled with banana bread, as well was dried fruit. Spicey and fruity.

Taste/Mouthfeel: The carbonation is on the light side, and the beer itself has a very "dry" mouthfeel. This is definitely a full bodied, complex brew. There are a lot of spice notes up front, such as clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon, followed by roasted coffee and dark chocolate notes (with accompanying bitterness). I am also getting some sweet cider notes before the finish, followed by banana bread, and a long lingering bitterness on the finish. At times, this is very reminiscent to a spiced dunkelweizen with it's rich chocolate/roasted malt taste coupled with the added spice. Moderately drinkable, but it definitely fills you up.

Overall: 10/10 I have had a few other 21st Amendment beers, but this has been the best offering I have had from them. If you're into dunkels, as well as belgian ales, well then this is the perfect almagamation for you. It's a very unique mix of two very different styles of beers, but both styles (belgian ale and dunkel) have their roots deep in winter time sippings. If you are a fan of either styles of beer, I strongly suggest you try this one. It definitely lives up to the name of "winter warmer". I am finishing up my glass as I type this, the snow outside is falling pretty hard, and this beer just makes the pearl white blanket falling outside feel "just right". An excellent winter brew. Cheers!