Harpoon Winter Warmer is pretty polarizing. People either love or hate. I have never heard someone say “eh, it’s all right”. Assuming that Not Your Average Joe’s runs a clean establishment, what you tasted was probably the hops, nutmeg and cinnamon. You could verify that by having another from a bottle or you could try another winter seasonal and see if you like spices in your beer. Sierra Nevada Celebration has about the same level of spices, although I think its calibration is off. The Samuel Adams winter seasonal beers (Old Fezziwig and Winter Lager) are very very light on the spices so I would not call them a good point for comparison (unless you just want to compare Harpoon Warmer to a delicious beer).

Thanks for the comment and for kicking off the discussion.

TwoBusy, you NAILED it!