Hogs Back Aromas over Tongham

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Hazy amber colour, Sweet aroma of figs, candied cherries, vanilla, pears, calvados and coconut in the deepmalty aroma. Full, sweet and warming flavour of dades, raisin, vanilla, candied pears white pepper and alcohol. Warming finish of wood, licorice, pepper and sweet cherries. Sweet, rustic and quite complex.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Ruby red colour, small white head. Aroma is caramel, candy sugar and alcohol. Some marzipanous hints also show in background. Flavour is licorace, some chocolate, much spices, malts and hops. Some slight glueish notes in the finish. Long plummy and cherryish aftertaste.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Bottle. Clear chestnut coloured with next to no head, which soon was all but gone. Aroma has fruit, caramel and alcohol. Sweet malty and fruity taste with some rather unsubtle alcohol and a big warming finish. Smooth and full bodied. Pretty good.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

One of the last of the exclusive range of beers purchased for me by the collected London BA Crew at The Bottle Shop two weeks ago. Could I have waited a bit before popping this open? Yeah, probably -- but where would the fun be in that, eh...? ;)

But seriously, I wasn't sure what to think of this before popping it open. 275mL bottle, O.G. 1.091..., with an odd plastic seal around the neck and bottle cap, stamped with "CAMRA says this is Real Ale" that (I believe) is a fairly new program for the good folks of CAMRA.

Anyway, poured this into one of my SD Strong Ale goblets. Not a whole lot in the way of carbonation -- pretty minimal, really. But I liked the rusty-ruddy-red body of this particular beer.

The very odd name doesn't lie -- this does indeed have a rather distinctive and appealing aroma. Very complex, with fruit and hops sharing the load, and co-existing quite nicely in the nose. An "orgy of aroma", indeed...!

The same can be said for the flavor profile, that is highlighted by the rather smooth and damn-near sensual mouthfeel of this beer. Nicely layered in complexity -- I rather enjoyed the fact that I was picking up different things from each and every sip.

How does this compare to what I feel to be the yard stick for quality English Barleywines (i.e. J. W. Lee's)? Pretty favorable, all-in-all. Not sure of the age of this sample, nor how well it would age over the span of a few years. But "as-is", this works pretty well for me.

The strange name -- and rather strange cartoon-y label -- give this beer a rather strange angle, compared to more mainstream English Barelywines out there. But if you do decide to take the plunge with this one, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised. Recommended.

Music: Tiamat's "Judas Christ".
//TB

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 4

dark red-brown colour, the initial head quickly reduces to a fine foam, prune comfit, bready and peppery aroma with some alcohol notes, oily and very sweet, syrupy with a late aggressiv bitterness, the finish is dry and malty with a very strong and heavy alcohol presence - it has some bad analogies with Thomas Hardy's Ale and it doesn't work for me.