bottle at home ... copper ... thin tan head ... soft sweet blackcrrant ovaltine malt nose ... soft sweet blackcurrent fruits ... soft fruit roast ... it is what it is

Bottle from B&M. Clear, reddy chestnut colour. Minimal, off white head. Light toffee. Sweet malt. Some bubblegum. Taste is fruity sweet. Light, dry finish.

From cask. Pours clear and golden amber to dark orange. Roasted dark malty and caramelish. Toasted malty, overripe fruity and caramelish. Bitter, dry malty and light caramelish finish. Bitter and dry finish.
Earlier Rating: 6/15/2010 Total Score: 2.9
50 cL bottle, courtesy of Ungstrup. Pours cloudy orange with a small white head. Aroma is mild ashtray and breadish malty. Fruity, herbal and mild ashtray hops flavoured. Bitter and fruity finish.

cask@Charlies, CPH - amber pour with a medium sized off-white head and lacing. Aroma and taste is sweet caramel malts, dark dried fruits, slightly nutty, pretty decent overall.

Bottled (from BOE). Deep ambery brown colour with a mediumsized off-white head. Aroma is floral, some sweet berries and mild nutty and caramelly notes to it. Flavour is quite big on the malts, mild to the bitterness, but some floral notes are there. Some wooden notes as well. Basic, but quite refreshing.

Sample at Churchkey. Clear dark amber color, small off white head. Aroma is malty and fruity. Taste has light toffee.

Pours a warm ruby-amber color. Clear. There’s some sediment at the bottom of the bottle, but with my elite pouring skill, I managed to keep it out of the glass. Small rocky head. Looks like they went with a cask mouthfeel attempt. Nice lacing. Only a thin coating of bubbles remains after a minute. The aroma has solid malt sweetness. There’s a toasty tone to it. Doughy. Lots of English yeast fruitiness to the point that it gets a touch medicinal. Apricots, raisins, grapes, pears. The taste starts out sweet with more of that rich, lightly toasted malt flavor. Finish has light mineral dryness and earthy hop bite. It’s definitely on the sweet side but still maintains much of that English ale balance that makes their beers so easy to quaff. Lots of flavor for the strength. It’s a bit over the top, but I can certainly see the appeal as a seasonal beer. The sweetness in the finish has a mildly off flavor that I can’t quite place - it’s sort of a medicinal fruitiness. Nothing terrible, just a mild ding for me. Mouthfeel is smooth and low carbonation. Nice take on the cask mouthfeel for a bottled beer. This isn’t my favorite English beer on the shelf, but it’s good and I always appreciate getting to try a new one, since so few make it into bottles much less to the US.

Cask at the Lamb Inn, Andover. A golden amber with ring of white head; thick and oily in the mouth, with some slightly sour fruit and obvious alcohol; before a dry finish. Certainly a winter warmer, but not hte best I’ve come across.

500ml Bottle conditioned: BBD 4th Aug 2013. Poured into two half-pint glasses on 2013’s New Years Eve during my ’Drinking around Europe’ evening. My wife choose this beer for England (and my age I suspect!): pours a lovely deep amber colour, on top a full but fairly thin biege crown of foaming bubbles. The nose and taste were complex and interesting: aroma was malty, musty and fruity, the taste very simular with anutty, woody feel added. Thinner body than I expected but still OK and it suited the beer nicely. The 5.8% ABV being hidden well within the flavours of the beer. Old Timer calmed us down a little and my head on the 1st Jan 2013 thanked this beer for helping to prevent a ’hangover from Hell’.