Samuel Smiths Yorkshire Stingo

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: English Strong Ale
Tadcaster, England

Radek’s bottle from Premiere Gourmet. Seems like an old ale, this is great for our North American geeky tastes. Big oak, above average mouthfeel. almost soured stops short of that. Some lace.

Bottle. Rich amber beer with a nice light tan head. Toffee and caramel aroma with light oak, light vanilla, and a light fruitiness. Toffee and light dark fruit flavor with oak and raisins. Medium-plus bodied. Raisins, oak, and toffee lingers.

Pours amber brown with a big tan head. Aroma is dark fruits, caramel, and fruity spicy hop, as well as some sourness from the oak. Flavor is full of caramel and toffee, with slight nutty roasty finish. Very good.

I am one of the fortunate ones in the US to have tried Stingo. Instead of going on with the head and colors that everyone else has already explained, I will rave about what I tasted. Each sip gave me a different sample of many flavours, being malt, fruits and spices, caramel and definitely oaky. What amazed me was this beer seemed to have a different outstanding taste with each sip. I have only experienced that once before with Dogfish’s 120 Minute (but with different flavors, of course.

Redddish-brown pour with a frothy light brown head. Aroma of oak/wood, sweetness, fruits. Taste is malt, light carbonation, oak, dark fruits, sweetness. Leaves a dryish woody aftertaste. The dk. fruit flavor comes out more as it warms.

Pours a beautiful deep ruby color with an medium head. Aroma is roasty with some sweet caramel and some brandy. The flavor is mildly tart raisiny with some bourbon and earthy character plenty of caramel character as well just a tad sweet. Absolutely wonderful.

Terrific opaque, red-brown in color, with sweet aromas of gingerbread, cinnamon, orange, cloves, and raisins coming up. Smells like a great holiday dinner pairing. And... tastes like one too. While the alcohol strength and carbonation are immediately noticeable, there is also an awesome flavor in here, fruity, spicy, and delicious. The oak is just barely noticeable and provides a great backdrop to the whole thing. Fantastic.

Nice to see something different from these guys. A brewery that doesn’t get the love it deserves from its homeland in my opinion. In any case, Medium towards deep copper, some chill haze initially, slight but lasting head. Aroma is yeasty dough, some vague fruit, a bit of toffee. Flavor matches, with notes of raisin coming in as well. Don’t think I would have found this to be oaky at all without the label telling me about the beer being aged a year in oak. This is obviously very, very old oak to impart only the faintest hint of its character on the final product. Also missing some of the buttery notes I am used to finding from the yeast of this brewer. Not bad, with a bit more malt backbone it could have been quite good. Incidentally, just realized this was my 100th English beer.