Ridgeway Very Bad Elf

Brewed by Hepworth
Style: English Strong Ale
Horsham, England

pours a clear orange with a small off-white head, and good lacing. smell of caramel, spice, roasted malt, dandelion, and hops in the back. taste is thick, spice, some caramel, sour malt, and bark, end is dry and bitter.

Bottle at Whole Foods - Short Pump on 11/09/2009. Very clear light amber body with a medium frothy off-white head. Sweet malty, earthy, bready aroma. Sweet earthy flavor with breadiness and slight roasty notes. Medium body with moderate carbonation and a slight grainy aftertaste.

Dark amber pour with a moderate off-white head. A little sweet aroma, with some hops, and fruit. Taste is somewhat bitter, and a little sweet finish. Seems like a bitter, but not as dry. Decent stuff.

500 ml bottle. Finland.
Deep golden colour with small white head. Delicious English bitter hops and caramel in aroma. English bitter, some alcohol, some Christmas spices in flavour. Bitter aftertaste with alcohol. Good.

Bottle. The beer poured a normal ale with a good head. The smell is of sweet malt and light hops. The taste is smooth and easy with a small hops finish. good carbonation.

Pours deep amber into a snifter. Off-white head quickly recedes to hug rim. Sweet summer pit fruit and oak aromas. Full with upfront oak turning to a warming dry hop and nutmeg finish.

500 ml. bottle. Pours a thin off white head, with medium lacing, over a clear amber (SRM 8) body.....nose is cocoa, toffee, caramel, yeast (grass) mild hop spice......taste is light malt, with slight caramel, finishing with a mild hop bitterness.....mouth feel is medium, carbonation is tiny bubbled and adds a soft experience. This is more of an Old Ale than a Strong Ale. It is very soft in its entire presentation, and in our extreme beer world, loses out. This is very well done to its real style, and I think is grossly under rated, because it is in the wrong place in the pantheon of beer ratings. Let it warm before you taste it. After all the recipe is from 1795.

Available on draught at the Brick Store Pub. I had thoughtfully ordered a Lump of Coal and received a Chunk of Sorry We’re Out of It as it had been replaced only moments beforehand with the VBE. Appearance: Served up a clear, copper-toned body capped with a less-than-mighty layer of white foam. Smell: Spicy herbs and toasty biscuits sing me some English-themed, Christmas carols directly into my open, waiting nostrils. As with its other various attributes, it’s all kinds of okay. Quietly unwinding with gray cardigan unbuttoned across from my friend, Jenna-kah, a well-dressed, mighty, majestic warrior, so I’m making my way through this beer slowly, cautiously even, and, as it warms, some notes of alcohol and diacetyl awaken. Taste: English pale malts presents a taste of lightly toasted, sugar-encrusted biscuit tops with a faint, background nuttiness. Moderately sweet. A lone drop of diacetyl provides a small buttery hint. Spicy, meagerly herbaceous hops present a simple touch of tea. Low degree of bitterness throughout. Tiny hint of alcohol on the dry, lightly herbal finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. Medium carbonation. Minor stickiness in the mouthfeel. Drinkability: Go on, friends, cram some Very Bad Elf into your mouth this holiday season. It’s Very Okay and a notable notch above the lesser Bad Elf. Each year I avoid working through the Ridgeway Christmastime beers like I avoid mopping the linoleum kitchen floor but maybe, just maybe, I’ll give’m a ’go’ this winter.