Ridgeway Santas Butt Winter Porter

Brewed by Hepworth
Style: Porter
Horsham, England

Roasted coffee aroma. Dark black/burgundy color with almost non-existent head. Coffee flavor with a slight alcohol finish.

50 cl bottle, Stateline Liquors. Pours a dark brown body with a small fizzy light brown head that faded pretty quickly. The nose is roasty with a bit of licorice, but also an odd slightly rubbery note that kinda ruins it. The rubber crosses over into the flavor as well competing with the roast and chocolate, and unfortunately it edges out the positive qualities by a hair. Medium to full bodied with a bit of clingy stickiness and very fine fizzy carbonation. A bit of a disappointment, even for a Ridgeway beer.

Pours clear but very dark -- light shining through the glass is a rich red color. Not much head. There’s not much in the nose, some yeast and a hint of chocolate. There’s more chocolate in the flavor; in fact, despite being not very strong, it comes ahead of malt or hops. It’s got a mostly bitter character, but it’s well enough balanced to make it drinkable. Carbonation is a bit finer than soda. Definitely drinkable, but there’s honestly not a lot to this brew.

Bottle. Pours a deep amber brown with a creamy light tan head. Aroma is cloyingly sweet, just way too much. Super sweet toffee and caramel. Just way too much, bitterness and foreceful. Flavor starts sweet, caramel, tons of toffee, wayyyy to sweet. Ah british beers, you love your malts. Candy, caramel candy. Medium body,....sad beer. Obguthr, this might be good if it was a brown ale, but you have to expect some complexiy and body, and this has none.

Definite aroma of tobacco, like a freshly opened pack of cigarettes, with toasted cereal and molasses underneath. Clear brown, medium tan head, fair retention, good lacing. Thin mouthfeel. Dried and toasted tobacco persists in the flavor and is pronounced. Nice smoke and charcoal finish. Dry flavor to be sure, but unusually similar to smoking a mid-grade cigar. It’s really a curiosity. Hand to God, I think if I drink a case of this, it just might be enough to kick my filthy habit (the smoking, not the beer). By a monster mile, this is the best I’ve had from what so far has been a disappointing brewer, IMHO.

The marketing worked, looking for a holiday brew and got sucked into this one. Bottle. Brown pour with a ruby tinge and thin off white head. Aroma of burnt malt, chocolate and stale almonds. Decent but thin taste of roasted malt, dirty chocolate, and nuts with a thin finish. Not bad, but not that great either.

Tap at Rattle n Hum. Not bad. Pours a dark brown with a thin, off-white head. Nose has some roasted malt aromas with hints of chocolate and coffee. Flavor is good, if a bit light. Decent burnt malt character and flavors echoing the nose. Body is light to medium. Pretty clean on the finish with some lingering maltiness.

Sampled at Famous Liquors Holiday Tasting in Lombard, IL. Poured a deep brown color, with modest, light tan foam and lacing. The aroma was mildly forthcoming, with roasted and nutty notes, and hints of chocolate and coffee. Add some low hop bitterness and you’ve got the flavor. Somewhat thin and watery, partly due to low carbonation. Might accept a bottle,...if it was left under the tree.