“Some of the oak casks at Samuel Smith’s date back more than a century with the individual oak staves being replaced by the Old Brewery coopers over the years. Gradually the casks soak in more & more of the character of the ale fermented in stone Yorkshire squares. Yorkshire Stingo is aged for at least a year, matured in these well-used oak casks in the brewery’s underground cellars deriving fruit, raisin, treacle toffee, Christmas pudding and slight oaky flavours, before being further naturally conditioned in bottle.”

Glassware: English pint.

Appearance: Pours more on the red side of amber with a thumb of finely beaded tan foam resting on top. Gradual reduction with sparse lacing.

Aroma: Quite an archetypal English Strong Ale. It’s complex, malty sweet and toasty. The one differing character is the notable fruitiness…it delivers an almost cherry-like quality with hints of strawberry and pomegranate. As it settles we get that black tea note which is so synonymous with English Ale. Toffee, fruitcake, figjam and subtle yeast esters also in support.

Flavour: The sweetness ramps up here. Initially we get a fleeting hint of molasses then rich toffee apple, red wine tannins, oak and an earthy tobacco ad-mixture. Typically these flavours would work well but there’s a distinct cloying sweetness which overarches the entire flavour profile and it’s unfortunately a tad off-putting. Shame.

Mouthfeel: Velvety, a little tart. Medium body with flat-ish Co2. The 8% ABV is fairly well behaved.

Overall: We don’t know about this one. Rarely do we encounter a well known English brewery that misses the mark on a traditional English Ale. There are some strong but also weak components to it so overall it’s a bit of a shame coz we were really looking forward to it.