Woodfordes Norfolk Nip

Brewed by Woodfordes
Style: Old Ale
Broadland Brewery
Woodbastwick, England

A great drinking old ale, with little carbonation, much like a cask ale, best before 2008. It went down well, and was pleasantly surprisingly woody as well as the type of old ale I like not being overhopped nor too barley tasting.

Bottle (330ml). via trade with Boutip. Deep burgundy pour with a minimal bubbly off-white head. Sweet, lightly woody boozy aroma, apple and some musty yeast - I like it, I mean this IS on-style, right? Taste - oh, God, wtf is that? Bandaids, sulfur, burnt insulation - and boozy - really horrid - where was this in the aroma? Thin body, lightly carbonated, weird silky mouthfeel and an unfortunate long, nasty aftertaste. If it’s supposed to taste like this, I need to stay away from UK old ales.

Got this as an extra in a trade. Thanks Phil! As I read the bottle was intrigued by the description. "This rare and much sought-after high quality Barley Wine has been brewed by Woodforde’s just once a year since 1992, and is based on the original Steward & Patteson recipe of 1929. It is considered suitable for laying-down for two or more years." Sounds interesting. Well, I don’t know if I got a bottle from the batch that the gentlemen below got, but the taste was not right on this one. There was absolutely zero carbonation. Not just a little, zero. The aroma was very whiskey like with strong earthy wood undertones. The flavor was very one-dimensional. At only 8% the alcohol was very present and left a sour, acidic aftertaste on the tongue that lingered until I washed it down with water. There were other flavors of caramel, vanilla, oak, but I absolutely could not get over the acrid flavor this beer possessed. I absolutely could not drink this.

Hazy deep amber with a small thin off white head. Malty, fruity aroma with notes of wood and a strong alcohol sweetness. Malty, caramel sweet flavor with notes of dark fruit.

Bottle. Muddy brown colour with a small off-white head. Roasted, caramel malty, fruity aroma and taste, sweet. Medium body with a dry finish.

Bottle. Hazy orange coloured with an off white head. Strange acidic flavour with notes of fruits, dried fruits and caramel. Flavour of fruits, caramel and dried fruits. Weird.

Well, we had all bought a few bottles of this stuff here in Quebec through private importations (so straight from the brewery), at over 10$ a bottle mind you, and we were sent cases of sharp-edged, unabated, truculent iodine and liquid wax. You could imagine some roastiness, caramel and fruitiness forming a more than decent body, but the wax, metal, plastic, and iodine agression cannot be consumed. Something went horribly wrong here, and I hope to get at least our money back. But moreover I’d like to get some non-problematic bottles of it. Rerate to come when/if this ever happens. This batch is "best before Oct. ’06", by the way.

Not a big fan of group bashing a particular beer, but since the brewery sent us quite a few cases which all seem to share the issue, the extreme variability of this beer has to be shared. Minimal carbonation feeds an almost absent beige head over a muddy earth brown body. Obvious alcohol mingles around strongly rooty, anise-like and caramel reminiscent maltiness. Huge plastic overtones, neglectable carbonation, higher alcohols galore and fireworks, metallic off-flavors make for a very stale palate. Sad state of affairs.