Clear deep amber colour, bubbly white head that vanishes quickly. Strong sweet aroma, bread, grains, fruit (cherries, apricot, plum), caramel, alcohol, woody. Bittersweet taste, vinous, oily texture, full-bodied, dry bittersweet finish with some caramel, alcohol…

Can. Handsworth Social Club, Sheffield. Whilst attending the Handsworth and Richmond Allotment Society AGM. And I’m struggling to decide which of the two is the most hard work to get through...

33cl can picked up in Alsager. Golden amber with a billowing cream head that quickly falls back; obvious alcohol on the aroma, with some grain; bittersweet grainy body; and a warming finish. Not a lot going for this, especially when compared to Bank’s Barley Gold.

Apart from tasting like a full bodied lager, its strength isn’t evident in its character. Standard aroma for lager, but a slight fruitiness in its flavour. Copper coloured with no head.

180ml bottle - bit of a tester this one, as I have preconceived ideas from my youth as this being the strong stuff the oldies would drink, and to be honest was always too scared to give it a go. The body is deep brown/amber, the head is a frothy ice-cream white, the nose is malty and sweet with a few notes of burnt sugar and caramel. Braving the first taste it is a bit sweet, again the malts, toffee, barley-sugar sweets, ends with a little boozy note. The mouthfeel is a bit sticky and syrupy, the end lasts, but isn’t too unpleasant. Glad it was only a small bottle, and glad I found the rarest of shops to split a 24 pack to let me buy just the one. Curiosity satisfied, I doubt I’ll ever try this again.

Small brown 180ml bottle with a ’very strong’ 8% vol brew inside. Best before July 09, drank March 09. Poured into a 0.2litre stemmed Budweiser Budvar tulip glass. Deep amber colour, clear and clean looking, with a white foaming head that fell away far to fast for my liking. Fairly sweet aroma, plums and pears mixed with toffee apple type hints. Plums in the taste, dates and figs too, not really sweet, but there is a suggestion of sugar throughout the drink. Rich without being creamy or sickly, sherry like in many aspects, slightly woody feel too, which adds to the sherry idea. I know old lady’s are supposed to drink this in ’snuggs’ and back rooms of English boozers, but it is years since I have seen such a thing. More’s the pity because this style will die in the UK if someone doesn’t start drinking it soon!

Bottle. Deep golden colour with no head. Aroma is alcohol, caramel, malt. Flavour is sweet, alcohol, caramel, malt, hop, dried fruit, raisin. Nice beer.

Bottle 180ml @ yngwie
Pours clear dark golden with a small off-white head. Aroma has notes of malt and caramel. Taste is medium to heavy sweet and light bitter. Body is medium to full, texture is oily, carbonation is soft to flat.

Can, at home on a restful Sunday evening. Pours clearish, copper-orange with a fast-fading foam head. Lots of booze on the nose with some dank, ripe fruits. The flavor, as others have noted, is not as bad as you might think. I’d place it somewhere between ’poor’ and ’mediocre.’ The alcohol presence is obvious and serves as the major characteristic of this beer, which is never a good thing. There are notes of caramel and ripe fruits like berries or something, but each note is tainted with alcohol. Full bodied with lively carbonation, which forces the booze into every part of the mouth. The finish is warm - almost hot! - with cloying alcohol and sugar. The presence of some sort of bitterness now becomes apparent. I will finish the entirety of my can, but only as a show of manhood. This stuff really isn’t too pleasant to drink