Big thanks go out to Kevin for the chance to try this BBC beer.
Impressive, champagne style presentation with a THICK, gold foil on the neck of the capped, 750 mL behemoth!
Pour gives a standard, mid brown IPA-like body but some excellent, thick, frothy head and lace that lingers. Solid looking.
Nose gives a very distinct rye whiff right off the bat, and this builds even more with increasing temperature.
The tastes do the same, with the spiced rye building over the course of the beer as the hop presence takes a bit of a back seat as the temperature warms. The spiced nature of the malt really doesn’t give one a break from the bittering angle and the beer gets difficult to drink in any kind of quantity for me.
I’m generally not a huge fan of rye beers, but this one was OK. It’s difficult for me to get really enthusiastic about them though, since I find the combination of a spicy, aggressive malt alongside the hops to give me a little too much of an assault on the palate. This gives the beer a combination that reduces the drinkability for me, but that is really a personal preference.
Hard work for me in this quantity and probably a good beer for the rye loving crowd but not one for me.