Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale

Brewed by Shepherd Neame
Style: English Strong Ale
Faversham, England

Bottled. An amber beer with a thin beige head. The aroma is sweet with notes of malt, caramel, and toffee. The flavor is sweet with notes of malt, caramel, and nuts, leading to a lightly bitter finish, where the nuts lingers. Thanks KimJohansen for sharing.
Earlier Rating: 2/11/2008 Total Score: 3.2
Bottled A clear copper colored beer with a lazing beige head. The aroma is sweet malty with primary notes of caramel. The flavor is sweet malty with notes of caramel and nuts as well as light notes of straw and alcohol, leading to a dry bitter finish. OK, but not a whole lot of Christmas in this beer. Thanks to Grovlam for sharing - I missed it on the supermarket shelf, so thanks buddy for helping me out.

Bottle 50 cl. Courtesy of KimJohansen. Clear amber golden with an off-white head. Sweetish, fruity and nutty aroma. Quite full-bodied with sweet caramel accents, nuts and fruit. A little sulphurous and bitter finish. 090209
Earlier Rating: 1/18/2008 Total Score: 3.2
(Bottle 50 cl) Courtesy of Grovlam. Clear, amber golden with a dense, off-white head. Fresh aroma of fruit and caramel. Medium body with sweetish, burned caramel and distinct notes of fruit. Clean and very malty. The finish is dry. 110108

50 cL clear bottle. Pours clear and golden orange with a small white head. Malty and slight spiced hoppy aroma. Sweet caramel malty with a breadish note, smooth hops balance to this to give an uplifting bitterness into a medium dry finish.
Earlier Rating: 1/12/2008 Total Score: 3.1
50 cL bottle. Pours slight hazy brown with a diminished white head. Light spiced and herbal with a mild malt note. Flavour is slight whiskey like malty, medium dry and malty. Finish is slight herbal.

<i>Bottled. </i> Clear amber, creamy head. Orangey perfumy aroma. Sweetish and caramelly. Evident perfumy orangey hops swim in toffee. Finishes with mediu mbitterness and some warming alcohol.
Earlier Rating: 11/28/2007 Total Score: 3.3
Bottled. Nut brown, firm head. Perfumy, flowery hops up front. Sweet with clean mouthfeel. Solid, fruity nutty malt lies behind a good amount of perfumy hops. Uncomplicated, but full flavoured and quite good.

Bottle (from Alko, Vaasa). Amber colour, mediumsized beige head, some lace. Aroma is grass, wood, some mild herbal notes as well as mild yeast and fruits as well. Flavour is rather herbal and spicy along with quite bitter hops. A rather wellbalanced and nice brew. Not too much Christmas in this though...
Earlier Rating: 12/30/2008 Total Score: 3.7
Bottled. Reddish amber colour with mediumsized creamy white head. Also quite lasting, giving some lace. Aroma is fruity, hoppy with some slight caramelly hints. Flavour is much the same, in a rather nice balance. As it got warmer it got some slight rouches of alcohol.
Earlier Rating: 12/1/2007 Total Score: 3.2
Bottle. Amber colourm, mediumsized white head. Aroma is quite typical Shepherd Nameish, yeasty and hoppy. Flavour is dry hoppy along with some grassyness. A bit soapish notes too. Quite oily palate.

Bottle. Clear orangered coloured with a small white head. Fruity aroma of caramel, grapes and hops. Fruity flavour of caramel, hops and grass. Dry hoppy finish.
Earlier Rating: 12/7/2007 Total Score: 3.3
Bottle. Clear orange coloured with a medium sized off white head. Aroma of caramel, fruits and hay. Fruity flavour of caramel, malts, cookies and hops. Dry hoppy finish.

Bottled
I already had drinked several bottles of this stuff, before I noticed on March that this has separate entry on RB. Well, fortunately my local (Beer Hunters) still has this available. It has copper brown color, small to average off-white head. Nose is alcoholic, nutty-woody hoppy nose. Bitterish, a bit fruity, alcoholic with typical SN’s nutty hoppyness. Too alcoholic for being enjoyable.

500ml bottle from Caskj & Glass in Tonbridge. Pasteurised I guess as no mention on BCA. Very attractive winter scene on label of oast house in snow. Amber, thin beige head. Plenty of the promised crystallised citrus fruits. Its better than the 2007, less heavy, more of the crystallised fruit. Some Xmas cake spice. More of a Belgian tripel but without the yeast. Malts are more toffeeish. Faint Sheps yeast aroma. Crystallised clementines, satsuma and mandarins. Toasty aroma. Some pasteurisation evident on the candy sugar empty malts. Alcohol is never evident. REally drinkable. Lovely fruit and strong hop presence on finish. Yep one to have again
Earlier Rating: 12/27/2007 Total Score: 3.6
500ml bottle at King’s Head, Wye. Copper no head. Some yeast, lots of citrus on the aroma. Lots of hops for a Sheps beer. Bit of fine carbonation, some toffee flavour in mouth. Rich, Xmas cake aroma, then orangey citrus and heavy hit of hops. Another decent Sheps Christmas beer.