Samuel Adams Merry Maker Gingerbread Stout

Samuel Adams Merry Maker Gingerbread Stout. Ale brewed with spices. 9% alc./Vol. 1 pint, 6 fl. oz. Special ingredients: Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Hops: East Kent Goldings and Fuggles. So, we're in for a English-style winter ale, with gingerbread spices. Brewed and bottled by the Boston Beer Company, Boston, MA, Cinncinnatti, OH, and somewhere in PA.

It's a rather macabre scene on the label, actually. Like something out of a Charles Addams or Gahan Wilson cartoon.

A trio of gingerbread men out for some jolly sledding fun, while the one in back reels in agony as his foot flies away. Jingle all the way, kiddies.

Solid blackness here, with a dark brown, roasted head.

Rich aromatics, flying out of the glass, spilling out spices. Bready sweetness. Nice stuff.

Drinking it: Dark, delicious malts are in command here. Just about full-bodied, with a sweet, spicy flavor that pleases the palate, but never quite cloys. And the heat is rising now, the 9% ABV is warming me up. Just what I need in this freezing January. But it's not quite the stout I want. It's not enough of the stout, and too much of the ginger, with more of the booze than the body warrants.

I like this just fine, but I don't love it. Won't be returning to it, alas.