Ridgeway Brewing's Bad Elf Winter's Ale

From the label:

'Tis a heavy hand what adds the hops to this festive golden ale. Truth be told, there's near to three pounds of fresh hops goes in every barrel of this treasured brew. And it's conditioned ready for winter sipping from your best flagon.'

This is a pretty good description of this ale. It's filled with earthy English hop flavor. This is one of the best English ales I have tasted. Lots of malt sweetness and plenty of hop flavor and aroma. It poured a lovely golden color with a nice lacy head. It's a bit stronger than a traditional English ale, at 6% abv. This is part of a series of "Elf" beers from Ridgeway, and is the mildest of the group. It is accompanied by Very Bad Elf at 7.5%, Seriously Bad Elf at 9.0%, Criminally Bad Elf at 10.5%, and the appropriately named Insanely Bad Elf at 11.2%. I will definitely be working my way up the series! Oh yeah, there's a 4.5% version of this beer, but I don't see any sense in going backwards.

Fuller's London Porter

Tonight we had burgers for dinner, so I felt like a dark beer was in order. I selected Fuller's London Porter from the Fuller Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, London, England. This porter is a classic example of the brown Porter style. It poured a deep brown with a beige-colored head. The head was small, but lasting. This is a rich, roasty brew with generous notes of chocolate and caramel. I only wish I could make a Porter this good!

Ridgeway Brewing Reindeer's Revolt

World Market had a variety pack of winter brews from Ridgeway Brewing in Oxfordshire, England, but since I had already tried some of them, I decided to seek out the new ones elsewhere. I found "Reindeer's Revolt" at a local beer shop in Orlando. At $5 a 1/2 liter it was pretty pricey, but no more than it would have cost in the variety pack. This is an English Strong Ale, and has an abv of 6%. It poured a medium copper color with a fine cream colored head. It's a good looking beer. It smells mildly fruity and malty, and tastes of toffee, fruit and alcohol. It's a nice ale, but I'm not sure it was worth 5 bucks. The label was hard to resist.

Wychwood Fiddler's Elbow Ale

Tonight I sampled another ale from Wychwood in Witney, Oxfordshire, England. This one's called Fiddler's Elbow, and it's in the style of an English Bitter. It poured a deep gold color, with a big creamy long-lasting head that left plenty of lacing. The aroma is malt and flowery hops. Carbonation was low, and the flavor was mostly sweet malt and more floral hops. The finish was mildly bitter. I really like these English Bitters, and this was no exception. Wychwood is getting to be one of my preferred English brewers. I'll be on the lookout for more of their varieties.

Darwin Brewery's Original Flag Porter

Darwin Brewery is located in Durham, England and they have won numerous awards for this Porter. The Porter was created from a 19th century recipe, and was brewed using yeast from vessels of beer found in a salvaged ship that had sunk in the English Channel, back in 1825. Isn't that a great story? The beer poured a nearly black color, with ruby highlights. The pencil-thin head vanished pretty rapidly. The aroma is sweet toffee, and the flavor is mostly milk chocolate, dark roasted malt and coffee. It's almost stout-like. It has low carbonation, and a medium body. The alcohol level is at 5%, which is perfect for a Porter. I really liked this beer, and the brewery's done a good job with their antique yeast.

Young's Double Chocolate Stout

Fast food was on the menu tonight, and those places tend to have a very short beer menu, so I decided to have a beer for dessert instead. I've been looking at a bottle of Young's Double Chocolate Stout in my fridge for a while, but I didn't think it would be a good dinner beer. It poured a deep brown, nearly black, with a pillowy brown head. The head lasted a good while, and left some nice lacing behind. The nose is all chocolate, like a candy bar. Young's brews this beer with actual dark chocolate along with the chocolate malt, making this beer very chocolaty! I was anticipating a sweeter beer, but was not disappointed. Too much sweetness along with the chocolate could border on cloying. As the beer warmed, the chocolate became even more apparent. The finish had a coffee-like bitterness. Alcohol is at 5.2% abv, which is perfect for an after-dinner beer. This beer is also available in a 1/2 liter can with a nitrogen injecting widget, for a really creamy head.

St. Peter's Cream Stout

I generally like dark ales to go with beef, so I decided on St. Peter's Cream Stout to accompany my pot roast at dinner tonight. St. Peter's is a well-established brewery in Suffolk, England. The stout poured a deep brown, almost black, with a fluffy tan head that lasted longer than most. It's a rich malty roasty beer, with a creamy texture. It also tasted of alcohol and licorice. This was a very enjoyable stout. I'd love to try it from a cask!

Wychwood Brewery Hobgoblin Dark English Ale

Tonight I chose an import to accompany my dinner - Wychwood Brewery's Hobgoblin Dark English Ale. Wychwood is in Witney, Oxfordshire, England, which has a brewing tradition dating back to the mid-1800's. Hobgoblin is approximately the same color as root beer, with a sizeable cream-colored head. The aroma is mostly toffee and malt. The beer is fruity, and malty with flavors of toffee and raisins. As it warmed up, the sweet toffee became even more evident. It had some hop bitterness and alcohol in the finish. I'm a big fan of malty beers like this, so Hobgoblin was a good choice tonight.

Young's Oatmeal Stout

Young's is a well-established (since 1831) British brewery that makes a wide variety of ales. Tonight's beer is their Oatmeal Stout, which poured almost black, with ruby highlights, and a tan-colored head. The head was not as large or as long-lasting as I expected from an oatmeal stout. In fact, oatmeal is frequently used by brewers for head retention. This was a very roasty-flavored stout, and was pretty dry. It had a lot of coffee and some dark chocolate in the flavor. I have had this same beer in a 16 oz can with a "widget", and the canned beer has a much creamier texture. I guess that's due to it's nitrogen-injected goodness. Young's also makes a Double Chocolate Stout that actually has chocolate bars in the mix. It's an excellent stout, which I'd recommend buying it in the "widgetized" can, for the reason mentioned above.

Lunch at Hagan O'Reilly's Irish Pub

A new Irish pub opened up this week in Winter Garden, Florida, so I had to give it a test run. My sister and her hubby are down for the week, and it seemed like a perfect place for lunch. We all like Irish pubs, with their basic tasty foods and good beer. We had an assortment of Irish cuisine at the table, including Shepherd's Pie, fish and chips, and bangers and mash. Of course we accompanied the food with some good brews. The pub has a special tap system that injects nitrogen into the beer to create "the perfect pour". I'm not sure it had much impact on the Murphy's Red or Harp lager, but my Guinness and Smithwick's combination definitely benefitted from it. The pub called this particular combo a "Blacksmith", just a different variation on the black and tan theme. The photo shows the two-layered blacksmith. Originally I ordered a Guinness and Boddington's, but there seemed to be some problem with their Boddington's tap, so I needed to switch to Smithwick's. The drink was just as creamy and smooth as I think it would have been with the Boddington's, so I'm not sorry to have changed. The food was excellent, and once they have the kinks worked out, I'm sure Hagan O'Reilly's will be a very popular new restaurant.

The Tanner's Jack, by Morland

I was a little concerned about this beer, since it's in a clear bottle. I was afraid it might be skunked if it hadn't been stored properly. My fears were unfounded, and the beer was fine. The Tanner's Jack is brewed by Morland in England. The word "Jack" in this case refers to a leather tankard which was a popular container for drinking beer from in the 18th century. This beer is an English Bitter. It's a smooth malty, slightly fruity ale with a modest bitter finish. This would be a good session beer. It poured a light-colored amber with a head that was just larger than non-existent. I'd like to try this from a cask, on draft, because I imagine it would be even better.

Theakston Old Peculier

Theakston Old Peculier is brewed in Masham England, and belongs to the Old Ale family of ales. It poured a deep mahogany color, which was red when held up to the light. It had very modest carbonation, and a small light tan head. It had a nuttiness to its flavor, like a brown ale, but less sweet. It had a medium body, and about 5.7% alcohol. The finish was dry, with not much hop presence. I've been hearing about Old Peculier for some time, and this was my first sampling. Although it's a fine English ale, I'm not sure it warrants a second taste.

Camerons Strong Arm Ruby Red Ale

I had high expectations for this Red English Ale, but they quickly dissipated upon pouring it. It poured a somewhat muddy deep amber, and the head was non-existent. The flavor was uninspiring. It had somewhat of a metallic taste to it which was distracting. I thought it compared to a couple of other red ales that I have had that were equally disappointing - such as Murphy's Red. I love Murphy's Stout, but their red is as mediocre as this one. I'm glad I didn't buy a six-pack!