Ballards Wassail
Ballard's Brewery Limited

500 ml bottle, as English Heritage Wassail, from English Heritage Shop. ABV is 6%. Slightly hazy reddish brown colour, small off-white head. Aroma of ripe and over-ripe red and dark fruits / berries, notes of jam, also malty notes with a hint of caramel. Soft mouthfeel. The flavour is a rich blend of malts and fruits, with the same elements as in the aroma. Hints of spices and oak. Not too sweet, moderate hops tingling on the tongue.

 

Poured from a 500 ml bottle bought in England. It was labeled as "English Heritage" Wassail and sold at an English Heritage monument gift shop, but was produced by Ballard's and matches this beer's ABV.

A - A medium to dark brown color with red highlights. Slightly cloudy. Head is off-white and initially thick but fades to a ring around the glass.

S - A very nice old ale aroma, but clean and restrained. Brown, grainy bread, prunes, raisins and a bit of alcohol. There is the tiniest bit of citrus in the background that may be my perception of a hops aroma.

T - The taste isn't as good as the aroma promised. Balance is actually toward hops flavor. Grassy to mild citrus hops and medium hops bitterness out-muscle the malt, which fades quickly to the background.

M - Moderate to heavy body. Light alcohol burn. Light, prickly carbonation.

O - A well-made beer, but disappointing to me. I hoped the taste was as complex and malty as the aroma, but unfortunately it was not. I want an old ale to be much more malt-forward, or at least balanced.

500 mL brown bottle.

A: Slow pour reveals very little head, and an attempt to leave the sediment in the bottle (as per instructions on bottle). Reddish brown ale with creamy off-white foam. Thick and syrupy in the visual department.

S: Sweet and rich. Dried winter fruits (dates, sultanas, figs, etc.)

T: Sweet but not overpowering. Mild hold underpins the fruity overtones and rich maltiness.

M: Syrupy, sweet, heavy but refreshing with a tangy bite of alcohol on the finish.

D: Refreshing, surprisingly mild for the 6.0 ESB.

Nice drinking experience!

The beer pours a very murky readdish-brown, though not unattractive. When I pored the first half of this beer into the half-pint tumbler provided, the smell was practically non-existent, and the tase was rather watery and with an unpleasant tannin-y tea-like sharpness. However when I made it through to the second half, I got the live yeast from the bottle-conditioned serving in the glass, and the beer improved greatly in the taste, with a burnt malty-hoppy quality mostly overwhelming the sour tea. The mouthfeel is not particularly pleasant, the tannin-y quality coating your mouth, making it feel like it's the morning after already.

It's not a bad beer, at least average, but not a good example of its type - at 6% i was hoping for something better.

Bottle-conditioned beer which I bought at the Ballards brewery last December during the Ballards pub-walk. The BB date is 31/12/05.

A: served cool in a goblet, it pours slightly hazy, copper to dark amber colour and a mushrooming and effervescent, fluffy+foamy, thick, off-white beer head with reasonable retention... suppose the yeasts have been very lively in the bottle for all these eight months.
S: the nose has at first a pine-wood and cider-like pungent aroma with a yeasty and nutty touch. A bit sharp at first, smelling a bit like a soft, oak-aged cider (!!), but it gradually softens and brings out more soft maltiness.
T: malty, lightly tart nutty, floral hoppy from the first sip onwards... raw nuts, pineapple, banana oil, musty fungus, combined with a ligthly tart and nutty sweetness and deep underlying subtle bitterness (almost black-tea like), lingering extremely well in the long finish.
M: the mouthfeel is very soft and very creamy, due to the lovely yeasty body; this is a almost-full flavoured ale going down just too easily. Can benefit from a little more hoppy presence, but this beer as it is already has lovely characteristics as a strong, exotic premium bitter.
D: unlike the other reviewer of this beer, I find it greatly enjoyable, just like all other brews by the Ballards brewery. Even more lively and flavoursome on cask, this beer promises to be one of the brewery's all-time favourite esp. in winter!
P.S. this beer goes very very well with mature cheeses, like lightly smoked cheddar, mature cheddar or aged Gruyere.

Sweet malt, sticky, bitter, rough, earthy, caramel, crackers. With leafy dry hops on the finish, some Special K in there aswell. It was a bit too grainy for me, and a bit too malt sweet aswell, way too sticky in the end also, not something i'll have again.