Bottle. Bronze color. Aroma: alcoholic, malt, toffee, raisins, jam and candy, a bit spicy hops. Taste: malt, roasted, sweetness, bitterness, fruit, toffee, port, caramel, long aftertaste with earthy hop bitterness.

Bottle from Seoul Plaza. Clear dark amber to brown colour, stable off-white head. Aroma fruiy, dried fruits, lightly roasted. Taste is full bodied, fully malty with caramel, dried fruits and high esters. Moderate bitterness and high sweetness. Light floral grassy hops flavour. Quite easy drinking, though some alcohol warmth is present. Very good.

Clear deep chestnut brown colour, large creamy tan head, good retention and lacing. Aroma is roasted malts, dried dark fruits, caramel, brown sugar, candied orange, bit nutty, cloves, cinnamon, alcohol. Taste is light heavy sweet and medium bitter, roasty, toffee, raisins, with long duration. Full bodied, oily texture, soft carbonation, aftertaste roasty bittersweet, spicy, alcohol, bit woody, pleasant winter beer.

Clear reddish beer with with a thin head which soon disappeared. Taste is as strong as you may expect from the strength. Malt, sharp hop and a mix of fruit in there too. The strength of the alcohol flavour spoils it a bit but it’s decent.

As K-9 Winter Ale, bottle from 2014. Flying Dog’s take on the classic English ’winter warmer’ strong ale style. Curious to see how it relates to Cooper’s Vintage Ale of the same style, which I had yesterday evening. Beautifully warm coppery vermillion colour, clear, with a thinnish and fairly quickly breaking, loose, pale beige head. Very malty, sweet aroma as expected from the style: cookie dough, butterscotch, roasted peanuts, caramel candy, biscuit, rhum-soaked raisins, dried orange peel, sweet gingerbread spiciness, dried banana slices, hazelnuts, spicy notes of cloves and black pepper - the feel of being invited to an old-fashioned English banquet with traditionally English winter puddings, plus faint hints of iron and wet paper, but not disturbing. Sweetish taste, banana and orange but in a candied, dried way, raisins, soft carbo, very smooth and somewhat resiny, oily mouthfeel; the malts are showcased here, very caramelly, nutty, toasted in the end but with a delicate sweetness; malty, bittersweet finish, toasted, caramel slipping through, nice late and brief peppery hop bitterness but allowing the malts to fully shine, and then of course there is a warming, rhum-like alcohol glow at the back to finish it off. The hop bitterness lingers for a while after that and the sweetness sticks just a little bit, but not so much that it becomes bothersome. Flying Dog clearly understood the essence of English strong ale and captured it in this bottle with care and knowledge. I would recommend this as a perfect introduction to this old-fashioned style to anyone coming from an American perspective.

Avena entre los ingredientes. Color cobrizo, bastante limpia. Espuma insignificante. Aroma dulce, a canela. Cuerpo moderado y carbonatacion alta. Agradable sabor, de dulce malta tostada, en medio de un tono alcoholico notable pero agradable. Buena.