Ballards Thin Ice

Bottle from Beer Essentials. Froths disinterestedly for a few secs and fizzes out. Headless, fat and blubbing like a barley wine 3% stronger. Ominous vegetal baked bean rawness on the pour, giving way to smothering thick toffee, prune, mouldering grape and Baltic/imperial Bovril stickiness. It’s getting there. Creosote, Twiglet, chewy dark fruit and demerara in the mouth. Cloying, packed with curranty fruit and aggressively bittersweet. Needs some time in the bottle to dull the edges, but I’m actually enjoying the harshness of flavours without a massive onslaught of alcohol. Not a hint of burn. Thick, raisiny, intensely yeasty and bittersweet BW of serious promise.

Bottled. Reddish amber colour, small head. Aroma is sweet alcohol, raisins and some mild caramelly notes. Flavour is dark fruits, grassy and some alcohol too. The finish is mainly burning sweet alcohol.

Cloudy amber with No head. Sweet aroma with plums, prunes and caramel notes. Sweet flavor with dark fruits and caramel notes. Ends sweet with warming alcohol.

330ml bottle (Sainsbury’s)
Deep orange to brown. Smells like mulled cider - spicy. Quite carbonated. Sharp bretty taste, tangy hops, fruity and a bit yeasty. Feels like it could improve with a year of ageing. Until then it’s a bit cloying. A bit raw and sweet. Bucket-loads of potential, though, with nice tangy sourness not seen since my last Gales POA.

Bottle at home. Deep reddish amber - still, zero head. Caramel and toffe on the nose, but with a slight blue cheese note as well. Cloying mouthfeel that’s slick rather than smooth. Sweet, port-esque flavour but sorely lacking complexity. Very disappointing.