Ridgeway Criminally Bad Elf

Brewed by Hepworth
Style: Barley Wine
Horsham, England

Pours an clear light amber color with a small frothy off white head. Nose upfront is vinous with mild hop and malt characters. Initial taste is a thin body with honey sweetness and hops. Mid palate is mild spiciness finishing with some rather bland maltiness. Good head retention and lacing of the glass. Very easy drinking, flavor is a little low for a barely wine, very one dimensional. Not aweful but not supurb, the average rating fits it pretty well.

The color is a little lite in color for a barley wine. It is a clear orange amber and leaves some spiral laceing along the sides of the glass. The nose is a bit estery with hints of lemon,orange and some spice. There is also some hints of bitter hops. The flaovr is rather sweet and hoppy. You can really taste that bready malt followed by the ester fruit which fades. you can really taste the bready malt in the finish whis is extreamly full bodied.

Clear amber with a thin white head. Malty sweet, spicy, bubblegum smell. Heavy body. A malty sweet and spicy flavor is pretty mild for a barleywine. Well hidden alcohol. Very easy drinking brew. No doubt an english bw. 123106

Pours amber with a thin head. The aroma is mostly malt with a touch of dark fruitiness in it. It tastes of sweet caramel malt, some light hops, and alcohol. There’s not a whole lot going on in this full bodied brew. It’s a decent barley wine, but overpriced for what it is. I’m getting the idea that Ridgeway makes a lot of fairly average quality beers with very premium price tags.

From the bottle, pours a rather clear red with a thin white head. Aroma is mostly of light malts. Nothing too special in the taste, malty, alcohol, decent taste, good but nothing to write home about. Call it an ok one.

A reasonably vigorous pour produces a scant, one-finger thick, tan colored head. The beer is a light amber color and shows a hazed, light copper hue when held up to the light; this is definitely pale colored for a beer of this strength. The aroma smells of slightly sticky, almost unfermented malt, golden raisins, brandy, concentrated apples, somehow slightly tart and it has a fair amount of hop character under the more noticeable malt notes. Hop notes that lean towards herbal, perhaps a touch of menthol, clean citrus and a bit of a green note towards the end. Not a bad nose, it is a clean mix of malt and hop notes.

Sweet with notes of golden raisins up front, but then a herbal hop character kicks in that then moves to a solid, though slightly astringent, bitterness in the finish. Thick and chewy, though this is certainly not sticky. It has a certain viciousness and heft that makes it a sipping brew, but not overly heavy. Somehow the simple malt character can actually disappear underneath the fairly mild hop character; at these times the beer tastes too green and astringent. This is actually quite hoppy for an exported English beer (especially the ones usually exported to the states). It has a touch of hot alcohol to it in the finish, though is actually fairly mild for a beer of this strength.

Not nearly as bad as I expected for some reason, but then it is not all that great either. I have a feeling that the bland malt character will pick up some character with some age. This could age for quite some time (though the lack of bottle conditioning is disappointing), but the fresher hop notes will certainly fade).

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It’s a very beautiful, warm amber beer with a small, dense head. The aroma is fruity sweet with notes of malt and caramel. The mouthfeel is fat and the flavour has sweetness, light fruits, malt, caramel, candy sugar, a nice bitterness for this style, and it’s a bit citrussy in the finish. It’s an uncomplicated BW, maybe not as complex as many others, but charming!

This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a small sized head of foamy fine to medium sized off-white colored bubbles that were and left behind a transparent softly carbonated light brown colored body and an excellent lacing. The weak aroma was mild vinous and malt hop. The mouth feel was tingly at the start and at the finish. The weak flavor contained notes of hops mildly vinous and brown malt. A decent one that I would consider buying again