REVIEW #81: Yorkshire Stingo (Samuel Smith's Old Brewery)

Pours a bright copper with an off-white head. Gummy citrus marmalade nose. Delicate Seville orange sits alongside peach and raisin notes up front. The oak notes and smooth vanilla cream come out to play in the a chewy, perfumed, Madeira-like finish. The beer treads a fine line between sweet sugar malt and dry alcohol, all buried within a viscous but well hopped and carbonated body. It does this with aplomb, somehow feeling substantial without being vapid. Overall its a good, solid, well-made beer but to my mind it lacks sufficient depth of complexity and flavour to warrant purchasing again, especially considering its cost. For example, I wouldn't regard this beer as having a much superior flavour to say Marston's Owd Rodger which is about a third of the price but not aged in wood.

This beer is lagered in oak barrels for at least a year, some of which are over a century old. The barrels were previously used as casks to hold various brews produced over the years. The name 'Stingo' comes from a 1700s term (sometimes spelled 'Spingo') for a strong beer. Sam Smiths is the oldest brewery in Yorkshire and ferment their beer via the Yorkshire Square method. I've previously reviewed a few of Sam Smith's beers, see reviews 16 and 20.

• MALTS: ?
• HOPS: ?
• IBU: ?
• ABV: 8%`
• BOTTLE-CONDITIONED.

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