Posted via email from beerviking’s posterous

And this bottle conditioned beauty is wonderful and goes straight to the top of the charts of my Christmas beers.

It poured a dark reddish colour with almost no head.  You can get the hops and malt right on the nose.

Taste wise, you get some sweetness before the hops kick in and that goes to quite a dry finish with a nice mouthful of yummy making you want even more.

I can’t find any details about this except for on the bottle. 

Weltons Imperial Festive is from Weltons the Real Ale brewers (again) from Horsham, West Sussex.  Looking at their site you realise that keeping up with their beer production is going to be quite a fun task in itself.

Best before date on my bottle:  25/12/2009 (love it).

Anyway, here’s what the bottle says:

This is a BOTTLE CONDITIONED, mahogany coloured beer, full of rich flavours from the Imperial malts and Admiral hops.

Scores:

Beer 17

Christmas Beer 18

The King family has been brewing beer for 5 generations.  They are based in Horsham which seems to be quite a hotbed for great smaller/craft brewers.  Need to go to a tour sometime soon.

I gave their 6.5% bottle conditioned Christmas Beer I try and based on that am now keen to work my way through their range.

It was a toffee brown colour with a bit of a Belgian nose. 

Rather unprofessionally, I can’t really read the rest of my notes but think this is what I had down:

Lovely bitter upfront with a warm malty warming taste coming through.

Wouldn’t really call this a Christmas beer but it’s a nice beer a really nice beer and would drink lots of this again.

Scores:

Christmas Beer – 13

As a strong English ale – 16

I poured this bottle into the wrong glass and so didn’t really get the head I was expecting.

The rest of my notes go:

Dark brown in colour.

Very bubbly.

Sour, chewy, comfortably bitter —> IPA

Score: 15/20

The label on this one is pretty cool with a Viking (Olde English) tale about where the word Wassail came from.

This was a conditioned bottle bought from the well stocked Middle Farm in East Sussex.  I was also able to pick up a 07 and 08 of the Old Bounder Series, an annual Barley Wine that is launched with a beer walk in early December.

This poured with no head (so quite reminiscent of all the British Christmas Ales I tried) and was a reddy/caramel in colour.

Taste wise, the label promised a strong, full bodied fruity beer with underlying hoppiness and this probably got my expectation up.

Still, I thought the taste was a nice chewy malt with some of the hop bitterness I yearn for.

In the end, at 6% and with the taste footprint, I wouldn’t classify this as a Christmas Beer (and I don’t think Ballards does either). I’d put it down as a well rounded winter ale and one worth trying and having again but personally, I would go for something new on the pumps before trying again.

15/20.

Stille Nacht from the made Belgian De Dolle Brouwers rocked me.  For a 12% beer the alcohol was nowhere to be seen.  The bottle I had poured bubbly with a small head.  A fudge like colour.  And it was oh so dangerously tasty.

Here’s what they say about it on the De Dolle website:

Stille Nacht (Silent Night) is a prestige beer from De Dolle Brouwers, brewed for Christmas. It has the highest density of any Belgian beer (27°Pl). It has been boiling for many hours, brewed with pale malt with white candy sugar in the kettle. The Nugget hops gives an extra bitterness to balance the extreme sweetness due to the density. The taste triangle is completed with some acidity of the fermentation. It is a very interesting beer to age. We have samples of every bottling we have done so far and aging hasn’t decreased the quality of this beer. Keep some samples at 10°C and mark the year on the cap with an alcohol marker. Cheers!!

Sounds like great advice and gives me inspiration for 09.  Collecting beers that can age!!!

In fact, I had a decent bottle of red opened and much preferred drinking this tasty 8.1% dark brown ale.

It’s actually quite good.  A complex 8.8% that actually hides that alcohol for a Belgian say it’s not true) behind a complex flavour.  At first I though it was going to be too sugary but it as it progressed that fell away.

As Christmas Beers is another new pallete area I’m exploring.  I would give this a 16 but in another year might rate it lower.  We’ll have to see.

Regardless, as they are spinning this one as the first Christmas beer, it worth tasting if you get a chance.

Due to missed connections, earlier tonight I was able to pop into a favourite little shop of mine.  I had to hold off the growing extensive Christmas beer collection there (only so much room in my bag) and picked up a few new ones.

First to get the pour was the Watou Tripel, a Trappist beer from the town of Watou, Belgium.  Michael Jackson has a great breakdown of Watou Tripel vs. the  St BernardusTripel.

I’m getting used to the opening of the Belgians and so had a glass all ready and waiting (in the kitchen sink).  What I loved was that my bottle (a 330ml) was dated Best before:  21 02 11.

Poured with what I would call an off-white head, that even 30 minutes late is still hanging around.

Colour wise, I’ve got written down a caramel orange colour.

I got a bit of a malty nose.

Taste, I thought it was fairly smooth, almost light upfront with some of the bitterness of the hops coming in towards the end finishing with quick a clean citrus note.

I would definately have this one again.