Greene King Strong Suffolk (Olde Suffolk)

Brewed by Greene King
Style: Old Ale
Bury St. Edmunds, England

Sampled from bottle. Pours clear reddish-mahogony in color with a creamy tan head and remarkable lacing. Aroma is vinous with notes of fig, hardwood, over-ripe fruit, leather and earth. Flavor balanced and equally complex with wood, dark fruits, green grapes and caramel/chocolate malts. Mdium-bodied, moderately carbonated and soooo easy to drink. A rare blend of session beer-drinkability and complexity.

Hoppy nose, Rich mouthfeel with a spicy, warming effect. You can really smell and taste the oak. A great brew.

dark brown w/ beige head. malty nose and creamy texture, the flavor is a mix between coffee and caramel. well balanced.

500mL "Olde Suffolk" bottle. Mahogany pour with a smallish khaki head. Aroma is fruit cakey with some cherries and other dried fruits along with hints of cinnamon and other wintery spices. My girlfriend says it smells and tastes like wine. I think it smells like it’ll be flat. At least it doesn’t taste that way. It really does taste like two beers in one. One is a typically malty strong ale. The other is a high ABV barley wine-like brew with a sour red wine-like tanginess and sour plums in the taste. Touches of caramel throughout. Medium-bodied and smooth. Slightly warming finish. Unique stuff.

Bottle. Vintage 2000. Pours dark red with a thick, beige/brown head. Complex aroma; wine-like in the vincinity of the glass, but stick your nose in and it’ll reveal malts, alcohol and notes of plumbs, which will be complemented with notes of licorice and chocolate as it warms. Flavour is malty with notes of alcohol and plumbs, and has a resemblance of wine or sherry, which creates a ’warm’ feeling. Finish is bitter with metallic notes. Ends with a faint lingering note of apple at first, but this gives way for more bitterness as it warms. Lots of body in this one. A bit too much carbonation for the style.

Head goes off fast, and this is probably the only negative thing about this beer. A tempting, caramel-like smell, reddish colour. Fantastic taste - like fruit-flavoured, caramel/toffee but not sweet at the same time; intriguing. The slightly sour end doesn’t change the impression - very good, definitely recommended.

Poured from a 1 pint bottle. Deep brown, with no head. Few bubbles evident. Aroma of malt, oak, burbon. Taste is mild, making it easily drinkable... No bubbles on the tongue at all, nearly flat. Hints of dark caramel in the taste. The flavor itself tastes good. Maybe it’s the style, but the carbonation is so low that it seems flat to me. No bubbles in the mouth at all. A little more carbonation would have improved my perception of this brew. Unfortunately, it fell ’flat’ for me.

interesting brew but it somehow fails to stand out, fruity notes in the malty aroma. Toffee and caramel, carbonation and malt. Fails to stand out .......