Spies'd Spiced Olde Ale
Wig And Pen

To be fair, I have averaged out my new and old scores for this beer to reflect the fact that while it is now better (and a good beer), it may be inconsistent in the future.

Re-reviewed: The appearance and aromas are similar to my initial review.

The Wig & Pen has added some brandied cumquats to the Randall to make this beer more interesting. My pint today was far better than the previous beer and deserves to be rereviewed. There is now far more vanilla in the beer which comes through nicely against a seemingly improved, fuller body. The brandied cumquats provide a slight brandy note without adding any alcohol heat and a great citrus note which holds through the beer and is nice and warming.

Overall, this incarnation tastes almost like a good vanilla cake with some citrus added. Really tasty, good full body with ample but not overpowering carbonation.

A very good beer.


Initial Review: Pours a crystal clear ruby garnet colour with a dense, creamy head. Good head retention. Limited lacing.

Muted aromas let this beer down with earthy hops, juniper and sweet malts predominant.

An earthy, herbaceous flavour is interesting. The beer is infused with cinnamon, juniper berry, vanilla bean and truffle. I don't get a lot of the cinnamon but juniper and earthy truffle are definitely in there. A touch of vanilla is evident. The main problem here is that the flavours are not powerful enough and it is somewhat watery. A good attempt but it needs better execution to really succeed.

The body of this beer is too thin for something designed to be a winter beer. Average carbonation works fine but doesn't change the watery body.

A drinkable beer, more due to its inoffensive nature than anything else. It is tasty but lacks the punch that would make it worth trying again.