BeerandBlues2 (3201), Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA Dec 21, 2006 Bottle. Pours hazy brown, tawny with a foamy off-white head, mostly diminishing, fair lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (molasses, brown sugar), light hops (grass), heavy yeast (fresh leather, dough) with notes of apple, pear and peach. Average duration, moderate sweetness, light acidity and bitterness; nice maltiness and creamy flavor. Medium bodied, creamy texture, soft carbonation and creamy finish. UselessGdTaste (363), Long Beach, California, USA Dec 21, 2006 The smell was quite sweet. Beer had a delicious hop flavor and a great amount. Sweet enough to take a bit of the edge off the hops. Texture is still mildly watery, but not enough to be unpleasant. ChillCoat (1029), Concord, California, USA Dec 15, 2006 Bottle. Coppery, reddish color. Dark fruits and grapes in the aroma. Also smells hot. Thin mouth feel with a somewhat sweet fruitiness to it. Sweet finish. GG (1613), NorCal, California, USA Dec 15, 2006 I’m warming up more and more with these English Strong Ales. An aroma of dark fruit, toffee and licorice. The flavor is really nice balanced with subtle English hops and a nice sweet malt profile which brought out some brown sugar. Finished off with a decent bitter/peppery note. Definitely would recommend this one. chriso (4685), London, Greater London, England Dec 4, 2006 500ml bottle from Tesco. I’ve bitten the bullet and started working my way through the common British beers that I’ve not rated here. Pours a deep tawny colour, although its actually more ruby when held up to the light. Initially has a big fluffy beige head that diminishes but lasts. Fruity malt aroma, but there’s also an unfortunate papery cardboard overtone. Very smooth on the palate. Lashings of berry fruit and slightly bitter cherry. Touches of liquorice too and an almost sherry-like character. The extra alcohol gives it more kick than the cask version. There’s a bite that seems to come more from the tart fruit than hops. Sharp, juicy fruit persists long into the finish. Decidedly luscious and surprisingly good.
Jukkabro (2983), Tampere, Finland Dec 2, 2006 Dark brown, slightly red colored. Medium sized yellow head. Bitter aroma with fruits, roastiness and some caramel, licorice comes up strongly. Medium bodied. Flavor has also licorice tones with bitter, dry and caramelly tones. Nice to have this licorice in pale ale. Mild roastiness and alcohol in aftertaste. Harsebrau (164), Kansas City, Missouri, USA Oct 20, 2006 Cellar and Loft carries this for me. Poured mahogany with a light tan foamy head. Smelled of cherries and apples. Malty caramel flavor. Gr0ve (1382), Oslo, Norway Oct 20, 2006 500 ml bottle. Thick creamy light brown head that clings well to the glass. Deep red colour. Rich fruit and berry aromas. Light raspberry maltiness. Crisp, but light, hop flavours at first, then a rich berrylike malty flavour. Very smooth and soft texture. Drying finish. Quite abrupt finish.
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