Leek Dark Peak (9.0%)

Brewed by Leek
Style: English Strong Ale
Leek, England

Serve in English pint, Trappist glass

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Bottle. Lively on pouring from the bottle. Medium body and a surprising lack of taste for such a strong beer. What a disappointment!

Sampled from bottle at Scopeys 2nd East Croydon Beer tasting, thanks to Leighton. Pitch black, opaque color, decent sized beige to light Brown head. Smell sour, slightly coffee, lightly roasty. Tastes pretty sour, not much more. The high ABV is well hidden, decent carbo, medium body.

Bottle at the Second East Croydon Beer Tasting. Pours dark brown with a medium tan head. Looks great, but unfortunately the greatness ends here. Aroma has notes of dark malts and hints of fruit. Flavor is weird. Slightly tangy dark malts, light sweetness, some earthy bitterness. Medium bodied with fine carbonation. Mild dry finish, plenty of tangy malts, faint dry cocoa. Really nothing special

Bottle at the 2nd East Croydon Beer Tasting, thanks to Leighton. It pours very dark brown, with a decent medium tan head. The nose is malt vinegar, milk chocolate, meat, sweet caramel and varnish. The taste is sour tang, malt vinegar, wood and dark fruit, with a tangy finish. Medium body and fine to moderate carbonation. I’m not a fan of the sour tang...

Bottle 500ml. @ chriso.

Clear dark red brown colour with a large, frothy to creamy, good lacing, fully lasting, beige head. Aroma is moderate to heavy malty, roasted, burnt, chocolate, smoke - peat - tar. Flavour is moderate to light light heavy sweet and bitter with a long duration, smoke - chocolate acidic. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft to flat. [20110102]

From 500ml bottle (best before 31 December 2011) at tasting with Jan & Charlotte on 2 January 2011. A very confusing beer - there have been several versions at various strengths between 6.0% and 9.0%, and apparently with style variations too. Although I have not tried the earlier versions, previous comments suggest it was clearly a stout. Although this has some stout-like qualities, I would put it somewhere between a dark barley wine and an imperial stout (so strong ale is as good a classification as any). Whatever the style it seems clear that the recipe has had a significant overhaul. Dark brown. Good condition. Dry and roasty but with some figgy fruit too. Quite powerful. I liked it.

Bottle from Microbar, Manchester. 9% version. Chocolate, raisins, malts and vanilla aromas. Flavours of chocolate, licorice, toffee, caramel and coffee. Sweet, syrupy finish.

UPDATED: APR 18, 2011 500ml bottle, 9%. Very lively straight away, pouring with a large & dense though slowly disappearing light brown head & a clear, very dark red body. Certainly looks the part with a modestly regenerative head & slight lacing. Sour cherry dominates the aroma to begin with, only marginally subsiding to allow through a creamier chocolate note & in all, it doesn’t move much past the cherry. Quite dry on the tongue with mild yeasty, roasted malt & liquorice tones having to battle through a surface funky, cherry sourness. An alcohol & fruit skin bitterness on the finish with a bit of ash too. Medium carbonation, medium body & a slight initial warmth though crisper than what I was expecting, given the ABV. [Update: 19/04/11] I corked the bottle and it’s been in the fridge for 3 months now. On reopening it seems the oxygen in the bottle has given it a new lease of life. In general terms it’s moved much past the initial cherry dominance and the nose is much more balanced and structured with prune, molasses, chocolate and roasted malt notes coming through with a far fainter cherry tang. On the tongue the sourness has almost disappeared and has been replaced by a roasty, chocolate malt profile. Remains quite dry, good length bitterness, heftier flavours, more structure & much more drinkable overall. [Initial rating: 5/4/5/3/10]

This bottle, though not mentioning on its label anything of extra strong, does note an ABV of 9%, higher than both the 7% of this entry and the 8% of the Extra Strong entry. What’s up with that? Anyway, it’s a very dark brown, almost black, ale with a soft, full tan head. The nose is of bitter espresso, cocoa and a very subtle aroma of honey; but in the mouth it’s dry, dry, dry. Roasted malts and bold bitter hops dominate. Following this comes a taste of burnt rubber and tawny port. The espresso carries through but there’s nothing of the cocoa or honey. The ABV is well hidden but the body is disappointingly thin with a lively carbonation and an unpleasant chalky texture. The finish is very dry and bitter to the point where my palate has started to find a real sourness to this beer. At the end there’s a lingering taste of corked wine and ash. Not terrible, but far too dry for the style.