Tuesday 27 December 2011

The eleventh beer of Christmas

Williams Brother Nollaig



Gaelic for Christmas, Nollaig is another Williams brothers crazy invention this time incorporating hand picked spruce tips and high impact specialist hops. So kind of like a Christmas tree IPA then. It's very limited edition.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, but think along the lines of strong pale ale with a twist and you won't be far wrong. It's aromas bring pine and juicy lychee hop aromatics over hints of fruit cake. Drinking the stuff brings waves of cakey sweet malt and ginger bread countered by resiny pine needles, gooseberries and an underlying pithy hop bitterness. That latter of these seems to build more and more in the finish as you make your way down the bottle as hops and pine reveal themselves a bit more.

It certainly is an interesting beer and at 7% it may well have benefited from a bit of ageing. My advice is its worth seeking out as I'm not sure if the brothers will be ever brewing it again.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

sounds awesome and looks fantastic! must try one of these