Leek Abbey Ale

Brewed by Leek
Style: English Strong Ale
Leek, England

Serve in English pint, Trappist glass

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Cask, at Newark Beer Festival, May 2004 at 5.8%. Notes recovered from a recently unearthed old notebook. Dark brown colour with a ruby tinge. Juicy, sharp fruity flavour. More of the same on the palate. Perhaps a hint of spice. Rather woody mouthfeel with a sweetish edge. Maybe a little balsamic vinegar. My experiences with Leek brewery’s beers have mainly been from bottle and not that great. This was fine. So probably best to look for them in cask, if possible, although they are not easy to find in that format. Difficult to place style-wise but seemed more like an Old Ale than anything else to me.

A Mes rate: 50cl bottle from the Bottle Shop in Bramhall. Mid red brown colour with an explosive head that settled to some fairly grippy tan bubbles. Soapy, wheaty aroma with lots of burnt malt and some herbs. Flavour is heavily burnt roasty malt and not too great in all honesty. Very little else to detect, it seems it has all been burnt in a bad fire. Ohh slight caramel and spice in the finish. Yeah yeah.

Bottle conditioned, 300ml. Dark brown / ruby with volcanic beige head. Highly conditioned, opening with an explosion of foam, but that was about as lively as the beer achieved. There is a sweet maltiness that gives over to a sourness that puckers the tongue. Some fleshy fruitiness, but hard to detect in the off flavours. Trouble is I was not surprised after my previous bottles from this brewery.

500ml Bottle from SH Jones, Bicester, 15-04-06. Dark brown malty I found it to be a little bit on the sweet side and whilst ok the most dissapointing of the Leek beers I have picked up so far.

From a bottle.Dark brown,no head.Sour and malty,an ear warmer if you can finish it.

Although describing itself as a winter warmer I found it to be a very pleasant drink on a reasonably warm summers night.It poured with quite a large head that dissapeared rapidly.Dark and quite malty -all round a nice drink at amy time of the year.

Bottle Conditioned. BBE Nov 04. Sharp - again. Almost all the beers I’ve had that have been bottled by Leek either for themselves or for another brewery have been infected. And there is the possibility that this would have been a nice beer. Shame.

Dark almost black beer with a hopped coffee like aroma, and a dry yet slightly watery and sweet flavour. Overall the flavour is quite weak for a strong ale, but satisfying in all.

Bottled (but no description!). This is a dark red/brown winter beer. Aromas are sweet, earthy, smokey and, well, Christmasy. Flavours have the same attributes but at a slightly lower level and with some chocolate. Smooth and Xmas pudding-like. This needs the boozy warmth of more alcohol to be a really good beer. Happy February...