Intial light sweetness, like muscovado sugar, gives way to fuller more rounded light fruity flavours, hints of cherry maybe.
The finish is dry and bitter, like an expresso coffee it lingers on the tongue, with a slightly spicy, slightly warming rum end.
7/10 A beautifully balanced winter porter, lacks some of the special spiciness for a Christmas beer.
I take your point about 'spiciness', but the brewery community does tend to go a bit spice potty at this time of year. I'm all for finding other ways of identifying with festivity. Great site, I'll be following from now on.
ReplyDeleteYou make an excellent point, brewing attempts to be "Christmasy" can be terrible, (see the Yorkshire Christmas Ale) on here. I guess i was hoping for some of the rich spiciness in say a Fuller's ESB. For me this was a standard winter porter, nice, but not as good as the Bath Barnstomer which is an excellent beer.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment!