Teignworthy Christmas Cracker

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Bottle conditioned. Looks superb; clear as a bell chestnut with a creamy off-white head. Promising malty aroma, with some raisin and other fruit. Very nice mix of flavours. Sweet, malty, creamy, fruity (raisins) and some vinous notes. Some hoppy bitterness develops in the finish, as does some warming alcohol. Superbly smooth medium mouthfeel. Excellent and very drinkable winter warmer ale.

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 5

Yet another beer, courtesy of the London Crew (purchased for me from The Beer Shop). While I've had a lot of great luck with the various Pitfield's beers -- I can't give this particular beer much in the way of a recommendation.

Quite staid in the appearence -- almost boring, to be honest. Same goes for the aroma, to be honest. I mean, this has some wisps of interesting things going on with the aroma, but really, nothing that befit's what I think of when someone says "Winter Warmer".

And then there's the flavor profile. Entirely too sweet for my tastes, without much in the way of balancing hoppiness. I can guess that this has a fair amount of Fuggles n' Goldings, but again, not enough to give this much in the way of balance.

About the only thing that this beer has going for itself is the mouthfeel, actually. Filling and smooth, it `tis.... But overall drinkability suffers, since I felt like I had to work to polish this off.

A beer that has all the makings of a quality product -- but just seems "unfinished" to me....
//TB