Ridgeway Criminally Bad Elf

Brewed by Hepworth
Style: Barley Wine
Horsham, England

Bottle. on ØJ-dag. @ YNWA, Kolding.
Pours a great, lightly hazy orange with a small head that quickly settles as a thin film. Aroma is malty sweet with a good dose of caramel, raspberries, dough and holly. Oily mouthfeel. Powerful alcohol at first, then the maltyness tajes over with lots of toffee and orangey sweetness and some chewy biscuit character. Perhaps the alcohol burn is just over the top.

(Bottled) Clear, deep copper with a smallish-medium, foamy head. Strongly malty, sweet-berryish and very toffeeish aroma with some alcohol presence when pouring, but not much afterwards. Very toffee-malty, only slightly sweet flavor with berries and some dried fruit. Quite full-bodied, low-carbonated palate with some alcohol burn. Very malt-accented barley wine, not very sweet or viscous. Slightly too much alcohol burn to be fully enjoyable, but definitely not bad - maybe criminally bad, though :). Didn’t get any better in 8 months - maybe slightly more vegetably.

Very nice....Amber pour with minimal head. Aroma is malt heavy. Taste is slightly bitter with some malt a syrupy sweetness. Finishes well with a slight lingering bitter aftertaste.

The beer as it sets in the glass after the pour from the 500ml bottle appears as slightly hazy burnished copper with the head modest in size, off white and frothy, it vanishes rather quickly leaving the a patchy coating of lace. Nose is cotton candy sweet, hints of fusel alcohol, caramel, malt and a touch of spice, pumpkin like is what I’m trying say. Start is obnoxiously sweet, malt present adequate, alcohol bite noticeable, top is medium in feel. Finish continues the heavy sweetness, hops overwhelmed, a tummy warmer, and the aftertaste sticks to your palate like the “Peanut Butter From K Rations”, but as I’m “Abbynormal”, I like this beer? lol

17 0z bottle via trade (thanks to whoever sent this!). Been storing this one for about 10 months i think. Nose is somewhat medicinal, alcoholic, and slightly estery. Taste starts with some syrupy sweetness, but quickly turns to apricot, pineapple, hops, and finshes warm but not hot. Body is medium/full, carbonation is moderate. I would say this is an average barleywine and better than it’s 8.9 style rating suggests. I have had many that are worse. Perhaps my laying it down for almost a year has made a difference?

500ml bottle from jjpm74
Clear copper with some off white head. Quite a bit of carbonation.
The nose is of cookies, fruit danish, a bit of earthy hops and warm alcohol.
The flavor is very warm with alcohol. There’s a bit caramel, honey, biscuits, and hops. Just very warm over everything though.
Seems to be very thin.

Pours a clear amber with some head. Nose is minimal really with very little coming up except a slight sweet tone. There might even be just a wee bit of apple there. Flavor is very, very sweet with just a slightly noticable alcohol presence. I also feel like I am getting a slight wooden edge to it in the back of my mouth. Mouthfeel slightly thin with a slightly thick carbonation on the tongue. This one masks the 10.5% very well, which makes it very drinkable.I just get the feeling that if this one were laid down for a year, or many more, it would be even more well rounded and even better.

Date: 01/10/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting

Appearance: clear copper, frothy white head, bits of lace,
Aroma: candy sweet caramel malt aroma,
Flavor: flavor has lots of sweetness, good fruity character, light bitterness, slightly warming, candy sweet with just enough English hops to add a bit of balance,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 12/20
Rating: 3.3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: *4