Appearance:
deep copper mingles with polished amber and garnet under a copper-hued head which fades with lace. A solid layer lingers. Swirls thick and lacey.
Nose:
bread crusts and dry-roasted unsalted peanuts. Lemon peel. Golden brown and crunchy French and Italian bread. Light presence of slightly sweet cereal grains.
Palate:
toasty first then nutty with French and Italian breads in the middle, more crust than inner white bread. Dry unsalted peanuts weave in and out. Apple butter. Honeyed apricot preserves. Grows a distracting buttery edge as it warms up.
Final Thoughts:
alright but definitely not one of Ridgeway’s better Christmas seasonals. The flavors were there but they lacked oomph, presence, and have since been long forgotten by yours beerly.
(an original written work by Kristyn Lier. plagiarism is not tolerated)
The buttery edge may be due to some diacetyl that may be emerging with age.
Indeed. It was a fresh bottle to the best of my knowledge which I bought first of this year from Total Wine. I have such a backlog of beer reviews, I am just now getting to post about it. Diacetyl can also be an unfortunate feature of English Ales, sometimes on purpose and sometimes not.
That’s the hard part…figuring out if it’s a “house” trait or a flaw.
Indeed. I’ll probably end up picking up another bottle this Christmas to do a comparison.