Strong Rudolph

Brewery: Rise

Type: English Strong Ale

Alcohol: 7%

Country: Denmark

A English ale style Christmas beer, and with a name like Strong Rudolph what could go wrong?. Not sure why all these Christmas beers need to be so strong, guess it helps spread the holiday cheer. So yes anyway it pours a dark amber color, but still let's quite a bit of light through. The head is negligible on this but leaved behind some nice lacing. Smells of nice caramel malts and a touch of earthy British hops. A sweet but balanced taste to this one. There is a lot of toffee sweetness up front, with a very dry wheat taste and dark fruits which are kind of a staple for these christmas ales. This is all balanced by a decent hop bitterness that doesn't allow the sweetness to overwhelm everything. The only really disturbing thing to the pallet is a slight coppery taste that is really noticeable the more you drink. This is a decent Christmas beer, although it seems a bit too sweet with not enough of the balancing spicieness of most of these types of beers.