In a city that's also home to the likes of Brewer's Art and Union Craft, Heavy Seas could all too easily come off as the shallow yet popular kid among the more substantial Baltimore breweries. But as luck would have it, that title still belongs to Natty Boh,* allowing Heavy Seas to persist as the flashier brewery in town. Sadly, that flash obscures some decent brewing tradition. For all their overwrought pirate-imagery, much of Heavy Seas' output (their Rye Porter, their Small Craft Warning pils) is built for light palate-refreshers or, more likely, some early evening sessioning. Among the never-too-complex but perfectly-pleasant lineup, Winter Storm fits right in.
Winter Storm pours dark brown, a few shades shy of black, with a dense head (yes, ha ha, dense head).
It smells nutty, and a bit malty. Despite being labeled as an Imperial ESB, this one is introducing itself as a nut brown. Not that I'll ever complain about a brown ale.
Some surprisingly sweet malt is up first, followed by caramel, and then malt again. The taste is not so heavy on the alcohol.
Winter Storm rests medium-heavy. Somewhere between a fall and winter beer, making it about right for the weird November we're having.
My feelings on Christmas ales are pretty well-documented. The entire style could afford to turn the clock back a few weeks and take some notes from this ESB (maybe with a few more notes from the better porters, while being less... nutmegy). Malty with some satisfying heft, Winter Storm comes off like a sleepy pirate, wishing everybody happy holidays a few days too early. Fortunately, the beer is good enough that you don't really mind the seasonal creep.
Grade: B+
*Note to my fellow Marylanders: National Bohemian is now brewed in North Carolina and Georgia. So we can stop pretending that it possesses some kind of noble, local allure and accept that it is instead just a bland "eh, I'm already drunk" beer.
