Quote Originally Posted by sheffield hatter View Post
If I recover, I shall have a go at the barley wine too.
I forgot to mention that both the Imperial Stout and the Elizabethan Ale are in nips (275ml), which pour into my brim measure half-pint glasses with only about 2mm to spare, which gives an idea of how much short of a half we (used to) get in pubs, where a 1cm head would be the best you could hope for.

Elizabethan Ale was so called because it was brewed to celebrate the coronation in 1953, and the blurb on the bottle suggests it was modelled on, or "reminiscent of", a 16th century October Ale. Whatever, it's a 7.5% barley wine, and one of the best I've had. (My favourite is Coniston brewery's No.9, which is a little stronger at 8.5%.) After pouring the head is quick to vanish, but the beer has a delightful fizz to it, like a well-conditioned cask beer rather than one from a bottle. The beer has an unusual colour, like a coke mixed with apple juice (it's ok, no one's going to ask you to drink it), but with just a few tiny bubbles. The taste is complex, as you'd expect, with sweetness from the malt doing battle with the bitterness of the hops, and the alcohol joining in from time to time in a three part harmony. I feel a little drunk.