Equinox Brewing's 2012 Midwinter Warmer

I have  a story about the Equinox's Midwinter Warmer that starts out in a meadering way. It starts
earlier this year when I had on draft Crooked Stave's Nightmare on Brett at Backcountry Pizza. I fell in love, found out it was bottled and sold at local liquor stores so I made it my mission to buy a bottle or two. What has this to do with Equinox Midwinter Warmer, I'm getting to that.
So I called all liquors store in my area and beyond, no luck.  My husband Larry and I went to Ft.Collins one weekend to Choice City Butcher for lunch and beers, of course, but also to check out stores in the area for Nightmare on Brett. Still no luck but we did find 2012 Midwinter Warmer on sale at Liquor Max in Loveland which is south of Ft. Collins.  I knew it was sold out at the brewery so this was a great find.

Speed up to the present, Sept. 12, the begining of the great flooding in the Boulder area. Larry decided that with the rains pouring outside  that it was a good time to crack open this bottle. The Midwinter Warmer is 10% ABV, it is appropriately named,  for it will definitely warm you thoroughly on those cold nights of winter.  I'm have only tasted a few barley-wines that I considered drinking again and this one is on top.

Midwinter Warmer is dark amber in color with that rich aroma of caramel with hints of oak and fruit notes.  Since this one has been aging for a year,  the booziness that one would expect isn't a dominate factor but it is there. There is also slight sweetness of the malt flavor that balances well with the woodiness of the beer.

Colin Westcott, owner/brewer of Equinox Brewing, respoonded back to my email on getting some information about the 2012 Midwinter Warmer. Each year a new batch of the barley-wine style beer is blended with the previous year's batch that was barrel-aged for a year.

The 2012 batch is waiting in barrels to be blended for this year.