Winter Skål

[steveh]

Capital Brewery, Middleton, Wisconsin. 12 oz. bottle, no ABV or drink-by date available.

Deep red-amber color with an eggshell white head that settled to a bubbly collar.

Well balanced roasted and toasted malt nose. Mellow sweet citric fruitiness back.

Smooth citric fruity flavor balanced by a bready maltiness. Roasted and toasted malts back, mild caramel. Mild and crisp hop finish. This brew has a pronounced winy-ness when cold straight from the fridge, but fades with warmth.

Medium body with a smooth mouth-feel.

It appears that the origin of the word Skål is akin to skoal, the Old Norse drinking toast, and Skål may be the original spelling - Skaal also being a drinking vessel.

The Capital Skål is a robust yet smooth, clean lager with strong malt character. It seems a bit lighter in color than years past, but it still packs a flavorful punch. As it warms the hop finish becomes more assertive and the toasted malts more prominent - but there is an underlying mellow fruitiness that is still balanced well through the drink.

This brew has no alcohol profile (in flavor or outright label statement), but I had a few with friends the other night and was more than a little groggy the next day - very sneaky.

S.

[stronk]

Are they really allowed to sell it without a sell-by or ABV?

[steveh]

In the 'States it only recently became legal to place the ABV on a beer's label. There was a whole concern, for so long, that printing alcohol content on a beer's label was akin to advertising the "buzz."

AFA sell-by, I think that's also a marketing tact used by Micros, since stolen by Macros, and I don't think we have a law that says it has to be anything the consumer can readily decipher.

S.

[BluesHarp]

Thanks for the report, Steve... I haven't picked any up yet this year, but is near the top of the list; we are at that time of year when sooooo many seasonal beers are debuting.:)

[davesarman]

One of my winter faves....

[corysdad]

I picked up a 6 of Winter Skal last night. I didn't try one until tonite with dinner. After pouring the whole bottle into the glass, there was very little head and it dissipated to a thin ring in seconds. Very little carbonation was detected. Is this on purpose? Seemed like it should have had alot more carbonation. I'll be trying more tomorrow, maybe it was just that one bottle.
Other wise I found steveh's review to be quite accurate.

[steveh]

One of Capital's drawbacks is a lack of bottling or drink-by date on their labels, wish they'd remedy that. I've found what I was sure was year-old Capital - of all styles, but Skål in particular - and have noticed that their carbonation suffers with age.

Other than the possibility of old beer, I checked my notes and noticed the head also settled quickly on my sample. Other bigger beers, especially the likes of big lagers, seem to have thinner heads. From higher alcohol or more malts? I'm not sure. Maybe even the difference is in bottling opposed to kegging. My local may have this on tap soon, I'll have to check it out.

S.