Posted via email from beerviking’s posterous

It’s tough for me to call between the Hepworth Vintage Christmas Ale; De Dolle Stille Nacht and the Weltons Imperial Festive 2008 but actually I think the Harvey Christmas Ale might have come out of nowhere and snuck it.  (That’s probably due to actually having that one with my Christmas Dinner!)

I was uneducated as ever about the Belgians and other than De Dolle (duh!) was unhappy with the results.

The pleasing thing was finding so many tasty local to me beers which has given rise to an upcoming brewery tour in Horsham.

Regardless, all so tasty and fun.

It might be late but Merry Christmas to all from the Tank.

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.

So, the focus was British and American craft brews with a sweet Mexican thrown into the mix. To be honset we had way mucho french champagne as well!

Still have 2 mixed cases of brew left and a Fullers Vintage Ale for New Years!

Happy Holiday and Merry New Year from the doc… I need a beer checklist system. How many different beers in 2008? My guess is about 100. But I will try to add them up.

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.

Hepworth rocks.  Andy Hepworth seems to be admired by most folks in the UK as a quality brewer and this beer is so nice.

I had a bottle conditioned one of the 7.5% beauts. Poured with a minimal head a gorgeous amber to light amber colour.  Smells awesome. Taste awesome. Is an awesome brew.

17/20

PS:  Effect of tasting session is obviously hittihg home.