St. Nicholas
Durham Brewery Ltd

A - Pour a gold-tinged copper with a spritzy off-white head. This rapidly fades to a thin layer and is helped along by moderate carbonation.

S - Orange, honey, cinnamon, a little clove.

T - Initial smooth, coating mouthful of honey and orange is nudged aside by Christmas spices. Alcohol begins to dial in from the middle and is joined by caramel. Warmth comes through in the finish and aftertaste.

M - Carbonation bites in a first before the body fills out. Smooth and coating.

D - I've really enjoyed the bottled offerings from Durham and this hasn't disappointed. Will be on the lookout for more.

Purchased at the Dram, a nice little offie in Sheffield. According to the beer label, this seems to be a limited edition beer: "St Nicholas is a rich, full barley wine, brewed especially for Christmas 2006". BB DEC 08, served cool in a large Burgundy bulb wine glass.

A: hazy, dark reddish-orange in colour, topped with a creamy off-white froth with good retention; moderate fizziness at play.
S: piney and lily-fragrant hops and lots of raw-ish, spicy yeastiness prevail upfront, underlined by a thick and dense backbone of (melted) barley-candy-ish malts, even reminiscent of some Belgian tripel I've tried... firm orangey fruity hints stay at the back. Overall, lively, 3D, richly malty as much as intensely fruity, but not overdone.
T: oily-textured caramely malts come hand in hand with piney and herbal hop-bitterness and spicy yeasts, skirted with flavours of spiced-oranges and spiced-apples at the tail... gradually being transformed into a dryish palate--woody and more herbal, until settling to a warming flow of alc. down the throat... The aftertone reveals more dryish palate and aroma of spiced-orangey hops and yeasts, while a trace of tannins constantly follows behind.
M&D: creamy and softly spritzy on the texture, only medium-bodied for a 9.3%abv. barley wine, and showing a healthy balance b/w all flavour elements and a firm backing of hops behind the malts. Not a faint trace of sticky sweetness or maltiness is left in the end, which is good. The only criticism I can come up with is its slight lack of focus in the flavour profile, which prevents it from earning higher scores overall--not to deny this is another very decent bottle-conditioned beer by Durham, though.