Old Scrooge
The Three Tuns Brewery

 

Ruby chocolate with a lumpy beige head that's steady and leave chunky trailers.
Deep subtle nose - cocoa, cherry stones, earth, oak, fig, and tea chest.
Dark toffee, milk chocolate, a bit of ash, dates, applesauce then herbal and bergamot oil hops.
Licorice finish and tingling anise linger.
Medium to full, well chewy, round.

Oldest brewery in England, which is something. There's lots going on here - layered malts, some butterscotch undertones, assertive bitterness - that shows some definite craft. There's maybe not the hop character I'd want, but with an Oct 25, '12 bottling date, I can hardly be surprised.

Solid outing.

500ml Brown bottle, best before Apr 2012, poured slowly (it's bottle conditioned) into an Abbot Ale glass tankard in Oct 2011.

What a beauty, deep, deep black/dark brown body, only see the ruby red hue it has when held up to a powerful light. The deep rich creamy head of tanned foam sits on top like a huge crown, wonderful to look at.

The nose is somewhat subdued at first, but then as it warmed in the tankard I found the smell of a malty fruitcake which has been slightly over cooked and begining to burn. Well that is how I'd can best describe it.

The taste wasn't as burnt, roasted, smooth or rich as the smell suggested, it wasn't creamy as the head suggested either. It was however heavy in body and certainly warming my insides as I quaffed it at too fast a pace. Hints of ginger seem to make it appear almost hot, but a caramel sweetness calmed it all down a little: interesting and certainly different. The mouth drying brought a hop bitterness and another dimension into the equation. Liquorice flavours appeared once the mouth had dried completely, again adding to the complexity of the tasting.

Not sure if my bottle was in good order, but it was a roller coaster of a beer and i'd love another one to see if mine was as it should have been: this review stands until then!