Daleside Ripon Jewel

Brewed by Daleside
Style: English Strong Ale
Harrogate, England

Serve in English pint, Trappist glass

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The moral of the story here is not to judge a book by it’s cover - or a beer by it’s bottle. The clear bottle that this came in was giving me the heebee jeebees but this beer was a pleasant surprise. Aroma: mint, pepper hops were immediate on the nose. Toffee and pale ale malt were present under the hoppy nose. A slight metallic note from the hops was the only detraction.
Appearance: deep copper to amber.
Flavour: Bready, peppery, earthy, a pithy orange hop flavour. At the mid palate there is a metallic note which isn’t all that pleasant. Frirm flavour, balanced "bright" hops with the malt. A nice lingering mineral note.
Palate: a firm bitterness with rounded malt, nice complexity, good alcohol punch at the end of the palate.
Overall: if it wasn’t for the metallic note it would be a 4.X beer easily!

Bottle. Deep amber body. Medium white head. Juicy malt, tangerine, dusty hops, bubblegum, fruity. Sweetish. Dry finish. Well carbonated. Okay. Yes, there is some barley wine here.

9th July 2010: Brown 500ml bottle, best before the end of June 2010, drank a week too late then! Poured into an ’Old Speckled Hen’ vase shapped pint glass: Lovely true amber body with an off-white coloured creamy head. Plenty of lacing as the beer receded down the glass. The aroma was mostly of malts, with some hop undertones. The taste was a good blend of malts and hops, malts foremost, with a hop bitterness appearing later in the mouthfeel. A word I rarely use in beer terms: ’smooth’ finish and a polished, well produced beer.

27-Feb-12 (500-ml bottle)
This pleasant English ale pours a hazy, deep-copper body with a thin blanket of off-white head that fades to a dusting and thin ring. Not a whole lot of aroma going on, but it smells fairly fruity and bready with some toffee, caramel candy, and buttered toast. On the palate, the malts are medium sweet, caramely, and toasty, with complementary flavors of toffee, nuts, honey, bread, brown sugar, and a light grassiness, plus a generally fruity overtone that’s often associated with English beers. It’s medium in weight and carbonation, and there is a slight dusty dryness in the finish. Overall, easy drinking, nice flavor, and pleasant. Seems hard to hate on a beer like this, but hard to rave about either.

50cL bottle. Amber color. Sweet malt aroma, a touch of fruit. Flavor is full of fruit. Fruit punch but much drier, less sweet. Dry, very fruitful. For this much fruit it could use a bit of alcohol, light watery bodied.

Heavy malty aroma. Average, frothy, white head. Good lacing. Mostly lasting longevity. Orange body. Moderate bitter flavor. Medium palate.

Poured a dark copper color with lots of sediment floating around. Thin off-white head. Aroma is slightly skunky with malts and bread. Some honey as well. Taste is slighlty bitter at first with biscuit, caramel, and bread. Slightly skunky towards the finish. Aftertaste is pretty interesting, very malty with grains. Creamy too. Overall decent!

Cask at The Old Bell, Harrogate. Pours a clear deep amber with a small lasting creamy off-white head. Aroma of sweet caramel malt, grain and light hops. Flavour of caramel malt, light hops, some fruit and grain. Average bodied. Pretty good.

Thanks to Blankboy. Appearance: Dark orange, small white head. Aroma: Wet hops, a little lactose, some good malt in there. Flavour: Tea, mild hops, lots of malt, apple and a grainy finish. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

500ml bottle shared by blankboy with me and garthicus. Clear amber-gold, smallish diminishing white frothy/creamy head. Aroma of grass, appleseed and apple. Taste of apple, caramel, roses, yeast, some alcohol - a bit of a mineral tang. Slick, light body, mild carbonation with a longish pungently floral/sweet finish .. .hard to judge the alcohol. Sweet, sticky, fairly nice.

Bottle. Clear amber colour with small creamy off-white mostly diminishing head. Malty aroma. Sweet flavor. Oily palate.