Stocking Filler
York Brewery Company Limited

The look reminds me of good old fashioned Guinness original before it was ruined near black with ruby hues and big lazy bubbles making a decent enough head.

The aroma is delicious and mouthwatering, liquorice and treacle, toffee and sugar baskets.

Draw a line between best bitter and stout and therein lies the taste factor hops stay just beneath the taste line being held back by roast sugar tastes start but never get into sweetness all swept along with a hint a nutmeg.

Good solid mouthfeel just stopping before chewiness nice low carbonation that fits.

Wow a better than decent Christmas ale.

Nice dark beer with a fluffy, cream coloured head. Warming, sweet malt scent. Bread, toffee, a bit of mild spice and some hop fruitiness to it.

Lightly spiced, warm and fruity hop presence. Rich, creamy malts with toffee and light coffee hints. No alcohol presences.

A bit high on the carbonation, and the low ABV make this somewhat under powered as a warmer, but its still a nice drink.

It's been a balmy spring day, so what better than a rich Christmas ale to round things off?

A 500ml bottle with a BB of Oct 2011. The label describes this as a spicy seasonal ale.

Poured into a Sam Smith's pint glass. An intense dark ruby hue with medium carbonation. Appears black unless held to the light. Forms a small head of off-white foam that remains for a minute or two before disappearing. A warm, spicy aroma with hints of cloves and dried fruit.

A heavy, fruity flavour with spice and a dry bitter finish. Notes of roasted malt, chocolate, dried fruit, cloves, nutmeg and herbs. A hint of nuttiness and a dry, leafy bitterness upon swallowing. Mouthfeel is smooth but a tad thin, and quite astringent. A warm, spicy aftertaste of roasted malt.

Impressive, with lots going on flavour-wise. A rich, warming winter ale with a good dose of spice - similar to a wee heavy with cloves. The only weakness is the body, which feels like it should be slightly more substantial. Overall, a quality effort that would go down nicely on Christmas day.

Brown 500ml bottle, best before Nov 09, drank in Feb 09. Poured into a Gordon's Thistle shapped glass (twice).

Deep, dark brown in colour with a good tan head, medium retension.

Dry, dark chocolate aroma (Bourneville), malted biscuits also came to my nose too.

Bitter dark chocolate, cloves? Burnt malts and licorice. Mostly though, it is a flavour of bitter dark chocolate.

The aftertaste was fairly dry, the body is fine and the 4.8% feels just about right.

This beer became more interesting as it warmed up, enjoyed it.

A X’mas seasonal ale of the York Brewery. Coming in a 500ml brown bottle, filtered, BBE OCT 07, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: dark russet brown, clear, beige creamy head with good retention; the carbonation is lively at first, and then decreasing in force
S: mildly syrupy, caramely, roasted-walnutty and roasted-chestnutty maltiness abound (a bit like a robust Dark Mild), hand in hand with bitter chocolates, a touch of licorice and nutmeg. Pretty complex if giving it a close sniff, but from a distance the syrupy malt seems to slightly dominate the nose.
T: bitter-sweet chocolate malts upfront, followed by a profound wave of dryish roastiness at the back to mingle with a milder entry of bitter chocolates, ever-lasting roasted tea-leafy bitterness and a very mild spiciness as of licorice lingering at the back of the palate; dryish-bitter, spicy and aromatic finish.
M&D: surprisingly clean in texture, with very soft fizziness to help retain the freshness. But the body falls a bit lighter than ideal, somewhat akin to a Dark Mild. Overall this is a very tasty Mild-like dark bitter or "winter warmer"-style premium bitter, showing very assertive features of roast malts as well as full-bodied hops. A very quaffable and tasty offering this is.