Hop Back / Ridgeway Pickled Santa
Cask: Seasonal - Christmas. Also available bottle conditioned.
Sold in the UK as Hop Back Pickled Santa. Sold in the USA bottle only as Ridgeway Pickled Santa.
Chestnut in colour, strong in flavour, hints of cinnamon, coriander and nutmeg.
Sold in the UK as Hop Back Pickled Santa. Sold in the USA bottle only as Ridgeway Pickled Santa.
Chestnut in colour, strong in flavour, hints of cinnamon, coriander and nutmeg.
3
210 reviews
Downton, England
Community reviews
500 ml bottle into pint glass, bottled on 9/28/2013. Pours slightly hazy/cloudy deep orange/copper color with a 2 finger dense and rocky off white head with great retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Nice dense soapy lacing clings down the glass, with a good amount of streaming carbonation retaining the head. Aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, brown sugar, light caramel, toasted biscuit, plum, pear, apple, herbal, floral, and yeast earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of spices, bready malt, and light-moderate fruity yeast and earthy hop notes; with solid strength. Taste of cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, brown sugar, light caramel, toasted biscuit, plum, pear, apple, herbal, floral, and yeast earthiness. Light herbal hop/spice bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, brown sugar, toasted biscuit, light fruits, and herbal/yeast earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Good robustness, complexity, and balance of spices, bready malt, and light-moderate fruity yeast and earthy hop flavors; with a nice malt/bitterness balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth and moderately creamy/bready mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is very well hidden with minimal warming present after the finish. Overall this is a good spiced English pale ale style. All around good robustness, complexity and balance of spices, bready malt and light-moderate fruity yeast and earthy hop flavors; and very smooth and easy to drink. A nicely enjoyable offering.
Pours a clear golden color, indicative of English ales. Smells of cloves and spices. Tastes very much of cloves, but isn’t horribly overwhelming. Could use some more spices besides clove, but all the holiday brews are typically over cloved. Not bad by any stretch, but just ok. This would be better drank in the winter.
Bottle pour. Clear light copper (almost a dark gold) with a short lived off white head. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and coriander aroma. Medium body. Very light taste with only a light bitter.
New Beer Distributors, NYC 50cl ($3.50): Pours murky light brown with a quickly dissipating head. Aroma is coriander, sugar, and nutmeg thereabouts. Taste is pretty mediocre. This tastes like a rum and coke, a bad rum and coke, but with less coke and rum flavor... I don’t know this is hard to explain. In any case, this is not very good.
Bottle at home, into a tulip. Pours a deep red-brown colour with a small white head. Disappointingly, this does not last long. Not much aroma: toasted malt, some spicy hop and fruit. Taste is moderately bitter and pleasant. Lots of flavours on the tongue, spice, fruit, biscuity malt and a really rather nice nuttiness. The finish is long and dry. Some of these Xmas beers can be too sweet and cloying, this successfully avoids that and leads to a (dangerous?) drinkability.
I was kind of hoping this would have dill in it or some awful thing but I guess this is just a regular beer. It’s orange w/ a short lived head because it is practically still. It smells like pine, almost hoppy but not from hops but spices, maybe allspice and a bit of corriander or maybe ginger. It is pretty bland when you taste it though, just a bit of earthy bitterness in the finish. I had high hopes for a trainwreck but this is pretty boring overall.
Bottle from Bernies off license, Solihull. Poured a hazy medium amber with a thin broken off white head. The aroma is rich over ripe alcoholic fruit. The flavour is moderate sweet, light bitter with a sweet fruity malt, light spice palate. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.
2010 bottle, so aged 4-ish years. Clearish dark copper with a caramalt biscuity nose. Lightish flavor but nice tones of biscuit and golden toast with a sweet malty tone of toffee and toast. Pretty medium all around.
Cask-conditioned at the Windmill, Portishead, Somerset 24/12/2014. Amber in colour, with a small, white, head. A touch of leafy hop, some stone fruits, and slightly doughy malts with cinnamon and clove spice. Finish was moderately bitter and a touch boozy. Good.
Earlier Rating: 5/15/2007 Total Score: 2.6
Bottle. This was way too much for me. This brown coloured beer battered me with soupy coriander, nutmeg and cinnamon. The level of cinnamon was really over the top - I have tasted less in cinnamon buns. An acquired taste.
Bottle. Pours copper with a ultra small white head. Aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg and mild spices. Flavor of caramel, nutmeg, cinnamon, grains and holiday spices.
12/3/2011. From bottle. Amber color with a white head. Spicy aromas with malt and caramel. dried fruit, spicy flavors, yeast and light hops. A bit watery.
500ml bottle. MArketed in the US under the Beer Counter brand for Shelton. AMber pour, very mild and unofensice strong ale, definitely some spice notes, mild breadiness, mild yeast character.
Cask at the Wellington; clear golden amber pour with a bubbly off white head, pale malt and dough aroma, taste has a hint of pine, bread, biscuit, light bitterness.
"light spices and the traditional thin english ale body. not offensive at all...even tasty as it warmed, but pretty basic and uninspired. pale chestnut color, smooth but too thin. little hops."
Draft at Churchkey. Hazy deep amber color, medium white head. Aroma of nutmeg and cinnamon. Taste is gingerbread. Thankfully no pickles.
Caramel pour with a light tan head. Aroma is cinnamon, nutmeg. Taste is spicy, nutmeg, little cinnamon. Little thin. Ok lacing.
Bottle, Wine Warehouse, CHO.
Pours clear amber with a tiny white head. Smells of copper, apple, and spice. Tastes of copper, nutmeg, and apple cider.
The pour is copper orange with excellent clarity and a short lived head that fades to nothing. Aroma of English malts, a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg, and something like an apple or pear. The body is thin the medium. The taste is refreshingly sweet but nothing that makes this stand above other Christmas seasonals. Modest bitter ending.
500ml bottle from Appellation Wines. Pours clear copper, nice tight white head & lacing. Aroma shave light spice, cinnamon and clove, alongside biscuity malt. Taste is quite powerful, more spice and nutty sweetness, but not too cloying for a 6% beer. Pretty good.
Really not much more than a carbonated malty bitter. The labelling grabs a few sales at Christmas but really tough to find the nutmeg, cinnamon or coriander.
Sweet, spicy aroma with caramel, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Flavor is essentially the same, with a little bittering hops and alcohol in a pretty watery finish. I thought this is better than the rating indicates, but still not worth going out of your way for.
pours cloudy copper with a thin white head. This beer is fruity with a lot of Christmas spices and very bitter.
The best Christmas beer from an English brewery so far this year.
Appearance - dark amber maybe chestnut with a nice head.
Nose - deeply malty and nutty with a spicy edge.
Taste -more of the same.
Palate - medium bodied with a creamy texture and a fairly fresh finish.
Overall - yeah it’s good.
Dark amber beer with a thin white head that lasts for a few seconds before disappearing. Somewhat soapy nose with hints of sweet spice, such as nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla. Flavor is semi-sweet with a bit of the spice from the aroma, but lacks the balanced bitterness to make the beer less cloying. After the initial sweetness, it just doesn’t go anywhere. Not great.
A - Slightly hazy, amber/orange, small white head fades to nothing.
S - Fruity, sweet cinnamon apples, peaches, buttery caramel malt. Some sourness when it warms up a bit.
T - Sweet husk grain, ripe orchard apples and peaches, cherries, faint dry spices come out but grassy hops overshadow the Christmas spices. Hints of diacetyl. Finishes wet and with miner hints of grassy hops.
M - Medium body, low carbonation slowly drops off.
The flavors start off good but everything gets thin and the aftertaste is unsatisfying. Would drink again but wouldn’t seek it out.
Serving type: bottle
12-09-2011
For an English Strong, this isn’t too bad. It has more evidence of spice, nuttiness, and caramel than most. Nice appearance and easily drinkable.
Bottle from coaltrain liquors. Aroma is malty with a few spices. I get nutmeg and cinnamon the most. Pours light chestnut color with thin white head. Taste is very malty with the above spices. Finishes smooth with a strong malty palate.
Bottle, cherry caramel pour, sweet malts, Caramel/toffee notes in flavor. Lighter notes of flavor in aroma. Decent beer but somewhat boring
500 ml bottle. Served in a nonic pint glass, the beer pours a clear amber/orange color with about an inch off-white head that stayed around for a little while. There’s a small amount of lacing. Aroma is nice but light, it smells like nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander, and some bready malt. It tastes like bready malt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and some apples. Mouthfeel/body is light/medium, it’s smooth and has low/moderate carbonation. I think it’s an OK brew, but I probably wouldn’t buy it again at $4.99 a bottle. Just seems average overall to me.
Cloudy light reddish orange with thin white lacing. Mild, spicy fruitcake aroma. Light citrus flavor with a mild spice. Good effervescent palate but a little watery in the back. Tasty overall.