RateBeer
   Home Sign Up or Login Advanced Search
   People Ratings Events Places Forums Shop Magazine
      Top By Category  RateBeer Best  Latest Ratings  Top 50    

Home > Brewers > West Sussex > Ballards >

Ballards Alchemist

 (RETIRED)


 Percentile 

Requires
more ratings

A Barley Wine formerly brewed by
Ballards

Petersfield, England

bottling
unknown

on tap
unknown

distribution
unknown

Add Distribution Data
Send Corrections

 Ratings  Average  Score  ABV  Style Pctl  Serve in  Advanced 
72.76/5.02.76/5.09.2%0Snifter P  Stats

Commercial Description:
Bottle conditioned; Old Bounder series - 2001 beer. Also available cask - Christmas.
Blending the finest malts and hops Ballard's has produced a very rich smooth beer with flavours of caramel and an underlying hoppy finish. Ideal as a nightcap or served with game or British cheeses with spices or used in sauces, gravies or Christmas pudding!

 Oakes (6979), Miami Beach, Florida, USA
3.6 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
8/102/57/104/515/20
Aug 3, 2004  
Murky nut brown with golden highlights. Aroma of plums, dates, sultanas, and molasses. Sweet and sour palate with fruity (cherry, plum) depths. Oily. Rounded flavours - you can tell it’s had a few years to come into form.


 JorisPPattyn (4500), Antwerpen, Belgium
3.6 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
8/104/56/104/514/20
Dec 25, 2003  
Very dark brown-amber, hazy; good yellow-brownish head. Nose of portwine, tannin & woody esters, wild mushrooms, alcohol, slightly soapy. Woody bitterness in the taste, hops too, tannines indeed. Rather raw. Dark molasses & burnt sugar. Retronasal even more bitterness: ink and chicory. Extremely well-bodied, dry-out effect. Alcohol obvious but not overwhelming. Aftertaste with very earthy flavours. Something has been tried. The expectations were high. But it quite didn't work out. It turns out quite raw. Shocking wood, nearly woodstripper. But as for the fine esters one would have hoped for...


 duff (5407), Sydney, Australia, Surrey, England
1.9 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
4/102/54/102/57/20
Sep 4, 2003  
Thick Special K flavour. Lots of alcohol, syruppy and cloying. Maybe it'd be better with some age, because at this stage, it was very unbalanced.


 fly (1247), austin, Tejas, USA
3.4 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
6/103/57/103/515/20
Dec 16, 2002  
Oily, no head whatsoever, strange wine like bitterness. Funny that with all the odd components that I still wound up enjoying this. Not like a typical barleywine so far as I know, but got me sipping it and looking in to the unique taste. Like the off handed compliment it might deserve it is "interesting".


 SilkTork (3941), Rochester, Kent, England
2 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
6/104/55/103/52/20
Dec 6, 2002  
O my flaming tentacles! I hate beers that grab you round the throat, slap you in the face and spit in your mouth. This one had me strapped naked upside down in a freezer while a couple of wide boys splashed acid on my dangly bits. Way too much alcohol! This one needs to undergo a major evolution in the cellar before it’s ready. At the moment it hasn’t even discovered how to bang the rocks together.



would you like to read more ratings?



Then join us! RateBeer is made by beer enthusiasts for the craft beer community. Your basic membership is free and allows you to read all beer ratings.

Desired User Name
*


Valid Email (Needed to verify your account)
*

Relax. RateBeer is 100%, guaranteed spam-free. That's our promise to you.

I agree to the terms of the RateBeer User Agreement

RATE THIS BEER

Aroma

rating assistance

Appearance

rating assistance

Flavor

rating assistance

Palate

rating assistance

Overall impression

rating assistance

TOTAL SCORE

Comments

More Barley Wines

Hair of the Dog Dave (4.47)

Lost Abbey The Angels Share (4.27)

Lost Abbey The Angels Share (Bourbon Barrel) (4.25)

North Coast Old Stock Cellar Reserve Brandy Barrel (4.18)

AleSmith Barrel Aged Old Numbskull (4.16)

Stone Bourbon Barrel Old Guardian Barley Wine (4.14)

Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine (4.11)

Kuhnhenn Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine (4.09)

Barley Johns Barrel-Aged Rosies Ale (Batch 2) (4.07)

21st Amendment Bourbon Barrel Lower da Boom Barleywine (4.06)

More West Sussex Brewers

Rectory
  Hassocks
King
  Foundry Lane, Horsham
Lurgashall Mead
  Lurgashall
Appledram Cider
  Chichester
Adur [Contract Brewer]
  Steyning
Hammerpot
  Arundel
Gribble
  Chichester
Dark Star
  Haywards Heath
Weltons
  Horsham
John Batcheldor Cider (JB)
  Maplehurst
Arundel
  Arundel
Langham
  Petworth
Hepworth
  Horsham

About RateBeer | Add A Beer | Add A Brewer | Edit Personal Info | 100 Beer Club | FAQ | Log out | Feedback? | Copyright 2000-2008, RateBeer LLC