Harveys Christmas Ale (Bottle)

Brewed by Harveys
Style: Barley Wine
Lewes, England

Bottle, 275ml, best before October 2009. It pours a ruby-colored, clear body under a nice but small beige head. Malty nose with an alcohol touch. Dried fruits and oxidation as well. Sweet, warming and full-bodied, with flavors of dried fruits and caramel, some oxidation too, in a good way. Pleasant sweet finish. A really complex night-cap style english barley wine. 090925

Clear golden amber with a medium beige head. Sweet aroma with roasted malt, caramel, dark overripe fruits and toffee. Flavour was cloying sweet with caramel, roasted malt, toffee and dark fruits. Sweet finish.

Ruby brown aroma with no head. Minimal carbonation. Vinous aroma of dark fruit with some vanilla and wood. Flavors of cinnamon, dark fruit, port, caramel, and some wood. Definitely a sipper and perfect for a cold windy night.

275mL bottle: Appearance is a really dark amber red with minimal head, Aroma is very complex like an aged wine, malty but also has some woody notes to it, Flavor I first notice some cinnamon and cove flavors that weren’t present in the aroma, but also picking up some caramel and the woody notes that were present in the aroma, not much for hoppiness but still a great barlywine.

Bottle. Deep amber coloured pour with virtually no head at all. Nice aroma of dark fruit, caramel, port. Tastes very festive, dark fruit, sweet, caramel, raisins, oranges. A jolly nice warming Christmas ale from Harveys.

2008 bottle, I think. Pours a clear but dark glowing brown, looks syrupy, with a thinner bubbly fizzy head. Aroma of sour grapes, fruity and nutty, quite sweet, condensed milk, powdered suck, weird funky sour fruit thing, warming. Flavor is along the lines of Thomas Hardy’s, cloying sweet, condensed milk and powdered sugar, cloyingly sweet, doughy, a touch yeasty, has raisin like sharpness, a thinner more watery version of Thomas. Medium bodied, syrupy but seemingly watered down, basically no carbonation. Pretty good, but I don’t like these one note cloying BW all that much unless they really offer something unique or super sophisticated.

Bottle. Frothy off-white fair mostly deminishng head. Nice amber colour. Heavy malty and light hoppy aroma. Light swet and moderate bitter kandis flavor. Very vinius and caramellic. Long nice finish. Creamy palate. One dimensional barleywine.

Bottled. Nose of malt, caramel, dark fruits and bread. Pours clear and deep amber with a tiny, dimnishing, beige head. Sweet flavour with caramel and notes of yeast, raisins and alcohol. Syrup texture. Medium to full bodied. Slightly bitter finish.