RCH Santa Fe

Cask@Oliver Twist, Stockholm. Amber colour, small beige head, leaving nice lace. Aroma is sweet malts, caramel, fruits and nectar. Flavour is caramel malts, nectar, mild alcohol and grass. Also some sugary and a bit fruity notes. Very good real ale. Had on Feb 26th, and back at Oliver Twist on Mar 1st to have a few US beers. Afterwards I ended up with a few more pints of this. Just lovely!

Cask Conditioned at Oliver Twist, Stockholm
Hazy dark amber color with red hue, small head. A mild, shy Barley Wine (?), with sweetish caramel, ordinary bitterness, soft mouthfeel, but also a light, suspicious sourness in the end; probably the beer is not fresh; some alcohol feeling too. I’m not impressed.

(Cask at Akkurat, Stockholm, 24 Jan 2009) Dark amber colour with frothy, beige head. Malty nose with dried fruit, caramel and toffee. Malty taste twith notes of dried fruit, caramel and some earthy hops in the finish. Medium to full body, too sweet. The hops are overshadowed by sweet malt. Tasty and warming, but too much sweetness makes it a bit unbalanced.

Cask at Akkurat, Stockholm. Clear nut brown, small head. Fruity toffeeish nose with evident alcohol. Sweet and near full bodied. Hone and jam are prominent and there is lots of carmamel while hops are fairly restrained. Finishes with more warming alcohol than bitterness.

Cask (Gallows Bird, Espoo)
Deep orange, glassy. Slightly alcoholic aroma, but a fair dry bitter aroma. Sweet sticky body, very rich and very smooth. Slightly woody, but also pretty sweet malts. Hops are pretty serious too, and stay for a long sticky finish. To be honest, this was a very hard to describe, I even had another one to see if I got more inspiration. It’s a very potent beer but very moreish.

(Same as previous.) Dark copper, thick off-white head. Nose is syrupy malts and herbal hops. Flavor has liqueurish bananas and sweet malts. Finishes drier with spicy & bitter hops, some warming alcohol. Medium bodied and somewhat oily palate. Sahti meets strong ale.

Cask@Beer Hunters, Pori
Ruby red color, small beige head. Wood and molasses in the nose. Portwineous flavor and palate. Wood, berries... short finish. Not really a barley wine, more like an old ale.

Cask-conditioned at the Bag O’Nails, Bristol 2/1/08. Aroma was of toffee, stewed red fruit and honey, with some grassy hops to finish. The flavour was packed full of toffee and fruit, with a decent hoppy dry finish to provide some balance. Very enjoyable, although a half pint was enough.