Olde Suffolk English Ale: Review

This ale is brewed by Greene King Brewery in England. It says on the bottle that it is a blend of two beers; one is aged for two years in oak vats and the other is reported to be fresh pale ale. It also says that color is added – that is odd – why would color be needed?? The oak barrel aging has me intrigued.

I do like it when they give tasting notes on a bottle. It says, “…notes of oak, caramel and burnt toffee…” and “full-bodied.”

Let me tackle the full-bodied first. This ale has too much of a water profile to be called ‘full-bodied.’ To me it is medium-full. I’ll give it a 6 on my strength scale.

Second, the taste: The oak profile is disappointing. The oak taste is so slight you have to be thinking about it to ‘think’ you might have just whiffed a taste of oak but, that is while the ale is cold. As the ale warms there is a ‘little’ better oak presence. I love oak flavor in my cheese, cigars, and wine. When I saw this label I was sold. Oh well, taken again. The ale does have some nice sweet caramel flavors. The toffee to me is more like a vanilla-toffee than burnt toffee. The texture overall is pretty smooth and the carbonation is low. The only lingering notes to speak of would be the caramel and sugar sweet notes.

$5.00 for a 500 ml bottle is a bit pricey for this ale. If it was worth it I would say buy this beer, but there are better ales out there – so skip this one. Buy one bottle for the novelty of it and then you can say you had it!