Ballards Darkly Veiled

Formerly brewed at Ballards
Style: Barley Wine
Petersfield, England

Serve in Snifter

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Headless medium brown pour. Alcoholic, sugary, toffee-like nose displaying a soft, grapey vinous aspect. Surprisingly yeasty all through, it also offers a rather phenolic flavour profile, really medicinal. In mouth, the yeast takes even more room, blending a sourness to the grapey hints from the nose, yet staying hugely sweet, fatiguingly so. I could never finish a bottle myself. Unpleasant example ultimately.

Cask (gravity dispense) at the Pigs Ear Beer Festival, London on 6 December 2006. Reddish amber colour. Fruity aroma with some woody, vinous notes. Deep malt on the palate with some caramel and stewed fruit. Dryish but had a quite pronounced alcohol burn. Despite this, it was a pleasant and relatively easy to drink. Seemed a bit unfinished though; obviously still very young - I think it would benefit from more age to settle down.

7th October 2007
Warning! Early amateur rating! Dark brown beer. Fruity start that segues in to sourish malt. Long bitter finish. Undertone of Port. Nice.

Hazy amber with a small white head. Aroma of malt with dried fruit and sherry. Dry and slightly tart malty and fruity flavour

Bottled. An unclear dark red beer with a thin beige head. The aroma is sweet with strong notes of berries as well as medium notes of malt and fruit. The flavor is sweet with notes of oxidation, caramel, fruit, and malt. The body is thick, and the oxidation is a bit too much for my liking.

Bottle @ chriso’s Pre-GBBF Shindig 2008. Pours a slightly hazy amber color with a small off-white head. Has a slighlty sweeitsh malty dark fruit aroma with some hoppy hints. Sweetish amlty fruity dark fruit flavor. Has a dry fruity dark fruit finish with some bitterness in the aftertaste.

Cloudy amber color. Caramel, burnt raisins, brown sugar in the nose. Slightly sour cherries, milk chocolate and burnt raisins in mouth. Very malty. A bit too sour, but decent depth. Warming finish. Take away the sourness and this could be a great beer.

Bottle at Chris O’s party shack. Amber reddish in colour, small white lacing. Bitter in hops with sweet candy sugar and dark fruits. Taste is similar in sweetness with a long orangey bitter aftertaste. Quite similar barelye wine character but prob better condition when aged.

Bottle 275ml @ chris_o’s Pre-GBBF Shindig 2008.
Unclear medium red amber color with a small, virtually none appearance, fair lacing, fully diminishing, off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, caramel, berry, tart - sour, alcohol, licorice notes. Flavor is moderate to light heavy sweet, light to moderate acidic and moderate bitter, sour with a long to average duration. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft, finsh feel is light alcoholic. (020808)

Bottle at chris_o’s hee hee haa haa tasting. Alround rating: Super sweet, very rich, slightly tart, quite a bit of toffee character, too much going on here.

Bottle at Chris o’s…dark red ... sour hop nose ...lots of hop juicy pine blood orange.