Burton Bridge Thomas Sykes Old Ale

A toast to Michal Jackson, 2007-09-28. Cask (Kitty’s, Helsinki) Wonderful sickly sweet rotting fruit aroma. Winey on the taste - white grapes. BALLS OF STEEL - this beer has more guts than most beers have beer. The taste accompanies the aroma, but had a huge bitter component too. The sweet rotting flavour’s the one that you’ll remember though - you will never be in any doubt this is made from a fermented mash. Warning - whole pints are, erm, dangerous.

Poured a shiny copper color. Very bright. Rather retentive head that held up well. Nose was bursting with peppery heat and perhaps a bit too strong. The alcohol was perhaps a bit too much. It wasn’t really being cut by much at all. Some malted toffee was able to break through and that aspect was raher enjoyable. Some mild wood tones that came across more as a sourness. Overall, just a tad out of balance with the alcohol. This beer makes me think it would be better as a late night scotch or toddy. Personally, I think I prefer milder beers pumped from a cask. This one was a bit too much and he wood didn’t do all that much to balance it out.

The one that tip me over the edge! Half pint gravity fed from the cask at the Ealing Beer Festival, poured a cloudy light brown. A strong malt and alcohol aroma. Not surprisingly a strong flavour, with plenty of plums coming through on the malt. Was good to sip on at the end of the night - though fortunately this was the last.

Nice deep amber colour,Very sweet and strong, at first clawing but grows nicly if savoured as you should at 10%

Cask conditioned gravity dispense at Merton Winter Beer Festival 17-02-07. I was expecting a darker looking beer but it actually poured looking more warm golden , tasted much smoother than I expected and nothing like the 10% monster that it was, yes there was a sticky sweetness to it but overall it was dangerously drinkable and at the end of the Saturday night I found myself quite easily slipping one of these down.

Gravity, Merton BF. Gold with a small fine layer of white. Quite a bit of sulfur, some caramel aroma. Feels like there is something pretty under there, but the barny thing is kind of in the way. Rich rustic corn flour malt. Very delicate and smooth. How could there be 10% abv in here? Unfortunate aromas distract from an otherwise rather drinkable barleywine. (Looks from Glenn’s notes that the aroma must have mellowed a bit by Saturday. Ah well.)

Cask conditioned at Merton Beer Fest 07. Copper coloured with bubbly white head. It had to be done, it was there so it had to be conquered, and quite pleasing it was too. Thinnish initially but then an instant alcohol burn on the tongue, but this is balanced with some mid roasted malt and a mildly fruity finish. A pleasing lack of medicinal note, one of the better big uns.

Cask pull at The Map Room, Chicago. Brassy brown color with a thin but bubbly head. The smell betrays little of whatever is concealed within, just a thin (that word again) hint of crystal malt. The taste tells all, however. The fruitiness of a nice long warm ferment, some caramel malt with a bit of toffees, apples and grapes. A warm alky burn that’s somehow gentle at the same time. Some pretense of sherry, back by floral or fuity hops. Difficult for the novice, but fascinating to beer geekdom.