Santa Fe
RCH Brewery

I don't think much of Sammy's review here- clearly he had a bad keg- as apparently did some of those "In other countries". In my case, I had a lovely pint of this beer on cask at the Brick Store Pub that by no means demonstrated thin, sour, or off flavors. Poured a dark amber with an orange tint and a slight head. Nice clarity. Smells decent enough with nice malty notes accented by dried fruit and caramel. Tastes nice, with quite a lot of caramel and dried fruit- pineapple and apple, creamy, and some notes of toffee and spice. Rich, deep, and fairly balanced. Creamy and nice balance of fruit, spice, and sweetness overall. I enjoyed this quite a bit.

English Barleywine? That's a laugh. The beer menu at Max's desribes this beer as a strong ale, which is more like it.

On cask today.

The beer pours a copper orange color with very good head retention and considerable lacing. Don't get a whole lot on the nose, just some light sweet malt and an underlying graininess. On the palate, however, this beer delivers plenty of flavor. It's a bit on the sweet side, but is nothing like any English BW I've ever encountered. The beer delivers some nice sweet malt, with some underlying brown sugar and chocolate. Fortunately, there is a touch of hoppy bitterness in the finish, which helps to balance the sweet malt somewhat. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, with a fairly long, smooth, soft finish. Drinkability is very good, with the alcohol well integrated into the flavor profile, and not the least bit obtrusive. This beer is not the least bit heavy or tiring on the palate, and comes across as a solid, well made strong English ale.

Very nice. Don't understand the previous D+ score at all.

On tap at The Ginger Man. The pluses: The mouthfeel is OK, it looks very good, fruity appearance with a white head. But the taste is sourish and horrid, and something I could not bring myself to have much of. I thought someting bad, but no people have had this in other countries and are just as disapointed.