Crouch Vale Santas Revenge

Brewed by Crouch Vale
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
South Woodham Ferrers, England

[Cask conditioned] Deep orange coloured. Very hoppy and fruity aroma. Loads of exotic fruits in the nose. Extremely well balanced flavour with sweet pineapples and bitter hops. Long lasting bitter finish. Not much Christmas to it, but extremely fresh and tasty. Another superb effort from Crouch Vale.

Cask, Far From The Madding Crowd winter festival. Slight hazy gold with a small, dense, just off-white cap, and a nice ring of lace. Gorgeous full fresh citrus aroma. Sun-ripened lemons, an undercurrent of raspberries. Just an extravagantly aromatic beer. Loads of citrus hop flavor, lemon up front, transitions to tangerine. A touch of catty flavor, which adds some texture. Light restrained clean malt. A fairly modest level of bitterness--it’s certainly there, but much more hop flavor than bitterness. Delicate, soft. Just a cracking good beer. Served in good shape, and a wonderfully big (but not overbearing) experience of hoppy goodness.

(Cask, The Wharf, Aalborg) - Mmmm... - Sometimes words Cant explaine... Another superb one from Crouch !

Cask@The Evening Star, Brighton. An absolute cracker. Not a Christmas style beer as such (i.e no spicy Christmas pudding type flavours), but a nicely hoped up pale ale (i guess close in style to an APA). Beautiful lychee/grapefruit hop aroma. Has a good balance between both sweet and bitter. Really lovely aromatic, hoppy ale. Fresh, with really good length of flavour.

Cask conditioned at Far from the Madding Crowd, Oxford. Hazed Gold with white head. Poured straight from the barrel. Big, wonderfully flavoursome, clean, dry bitter, plenty going on with orange and grapefruit in the foreground and then a lemon rush, all on top of a clean dry malt as a carrier. Very tasty indeed.

Hand pulled at the Bartons rms, Birmingham. Typically tasty offering from CV. Trademark flavour in the mouth - lemon/citric crsipness & fullness - bitingly fresh. Loses a few points for the finish where the freshness drops off and some plain malt kicks in. Still a delicious bitter, though doesn’t strike me as particularly Christmassy or Wintery.

Cask at Charlie’s, Cph. Very fruity and hoppy nose, with hints if light bready malts and some elderflower. Golden colored body with a bubly white head. Crisp and lemony hop flavor, with a light malty note. Very drinkable and very refrshing.

[Cask at Charlie's Bar, Copenhagen] The aroma is sweet and hoppy. The color is a slightly hazy orange and it has a fine head. The flavor is sweet with notes of oranges and aroma hops. It ends on a great bitterness from great hops. All in all a great beer.