Festive Pudding
Greene King / Morland Brewery

Copenhagen 14/2 2017. 50 cl bottle from Skjold Burne. On the label I find - no great surprise there - a huge pudding. Does not make the obvious weirdness of this concept less prominent. Well I have to admit that it has taken me some time to get around to this festive brew in my fridge.

Pours clear dark reddish brown with small off-white head. Settles as 0,5 cm thick layer of foam.

Aroma is living up to the label being quite sweet and sugary - festive some would say. Brown sugar, sugar jelly, licorice with a light whiff of alcohol. Modest sourness in the background.

Soft carbonation and slightly thick palate.

Flavor is quite close to the aroma. Overwhelmingly sweet. Followed by more sweetness without any noticeable bitterness around. A little sourness peeks in - but it is too little too late.

Not a bad beer - but not compatible to my taste buds.

 

 

December 3 2019

 

 

 

 

Found this bottle in an AB liquor store and purchased it solely based on the name. It's red and pretty, but has marginal aroma and flavor. Friends describe it as gross herbal water, I find it merely inoffensive. But yeah, a bit malty, huh.

 

 

Poured from a bottle from LOBO served cellar temp.

Look dark red with a thin lacey head.
Aroma raisins and fruit.
Taste malty with a delicious fruit finish with a hint of bitterness on the tongue, tastes moreish.

Lovely

Bright ruby, with some visible carbonation and 2 fingers of beige head.

Smells sweet and malty, slightly fruity with black tea, cherries, raisins and caramel.

The taste totally follows the nose and adds black liquorice, and molasses.

Medium body with a moderate, foamy carbonation.

Got this at Kitchener LCBO, drinking by Muskoka Dec 15th, 2017. Very enjoyable winter warmer.

500ml, clear bottle - apparently that's what you do with your 'rare oak-aged brew'.

This beer pours a clear, dark orange-brick brown colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves a bit of layered streaky lace around the glass as it quickly dissipates.

It smells of bready and grainy caramel malt, buttery crackers, some muddled black stone fruit, brown sugar syrup, a wee earthy yeastiness, and some understated leafy, herbal, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is grainy and gently soured caramel malt, underripe cherries, some mixed dark Mediterranean fruitiness, subtle bittersweet cocoa powder, a thin vanilla-forward oakiness, those candied bits you find in fruitcake, and more tame earthy, musty, and herbal noble hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-supporting frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, nothing really getting in the way of a good time at this juncture. It finishes off-dry, the malt holding fast, as a lingering herbal bitterness sniffs around, after dark.

Overall - having never had English-style festive (or 'Christmas') pudding, I can only say that this offering does well enough to emulate it, from what I can read about. However, if they keep the current packaging format, I don't believe that it will have the same shelf life of said foodstuffs.

A- Pours a red color with plenty of brown tinges to it. The head is about one finger thick with an off white head that settles into a thin-ish layer over the brew itself. The beer shows some clarity, has sporadic large carbonation rising to the top in a medium fast fashion and the lacing isn't overly bad with stringy clumps of foam clinging to the side of my glass. Not a bad looking Winter Warmer.

S- I smell plum fruit....this is the nicest thing I can say about the smells....other than that there is some must, grassy and grainy aromas happening here along with some licorice root, warmed wine and slightly orchard fruit aroma on the finish....not sure what to make of it, but hope the flavors are better!

T- Hmmmm....this is weak overall I'd say, and while I can sense what the brewery was going for, it's not that great. This tastes like my cousins not so good take on warmed ghluwine.....theres a weird combination of old spices, stale fruitcake, musty dry grass, and raw unmalted grains. The finish has more of a dry hop, scorched Earth flavor that reminds me of dry dirt.

M/O- Thin-medium mouthfeel, and the carbonation is rather zesty......you know, I'd like to be positive with this one because I feel like Greene-King really did try, but overall it just isn't doing anything for me....it seems like this is past its' beer eventually!

Bottle: Poured a clear brown color ale with a light off-white foamy head with OK retention and limited amount of lacing. Aroma of residuals sugar notes with some dry caramelized malt. Taste is also a mix of caramelized malt notes with residual sugar notes and subtle dry fruits notes. Body is light with good carbonation. Not overly complex but enjoyable for what it is.

 

Festive Pudding, eh? Dunno about that, i like pudding. But Christmas pudding is not a thing in my family. And Christmas cake is just anethema to me. And I was frankly fearful of this being along the lines of the butter tart beer I had a few months ago. But then again, it might be delightfully Christmasy.

In the end, it wasn't really any of those things. It's basically a very ordinary brown ale. Almost pretty, but otherwise unextrordinary.

500 mL bottle from the LCBO; there's a smudged stamp on the neck, but I can only make out '2019'. Guess I'm in the clear. Served slightly chilled.

Pours a clear brick red, with one centimetre of loose, bubbly, light tan-coloured head that wilts within a matter of minutes. There are few remnants, save for a narrow collar of froth and some filmy wisps upon the surface. Smells rather skunky at first, though this element seems to waft off and weaken over time; this allows fruitier notes of raisin, cherry and fig to reveal themselves. Hints of red licorice, cedar, brown sugar and plum pudding become evident as it warms.

Seems malt forward at first, with more plum/bread pudding and brown sugar sweetness carrying over into the flavour profile, along with orange marmalade, fig and fruitcake. Oak and vanilla become apparent mid-sip and last through to the finish, which becomes more herbal, earthy and root-like with touches of spice, cedar oil, licorice and ethanol. Very astringent, tea-leafy aftertaste that persists to the point of annoyance, but it becomes less of a problem if you keep sipping (as the malty front end helps to neutralize it). Medium in body, with moderately low carbonation levels that provide a soft bite; the overall texture is fairly smooth. This brew did grow on me a bit as it neared room temperature, but still left me wanting in the end.

Final Grade: 3.48, a B-. Greene King's Festive Pudding Ale is OK, but not much more than that. Its hop bill proves to be surprisingly potent, with the trio of Target, Challenger and First Gold managing to provide much more of an earthy, herbal, spicy bite than I've come to expect from British winter warmers. I don't mind this one, but it doesn't even begin to match up to my favourite UK exports in this category, like Sam Smith's Winter Welcome or St. Peter's Winter Ale. The clear bottle is also kind of a turn-off.