Day Thirteen, Beer Thirteen - York Brewery's "Ghost Ale"

Today's Beer

Name – Ghost Ale

Brewer – York Brewery

Classification – Dark Ale

Strength – 5.4% ABV

Verdict - At A Glance

On the eye – The stuff of nightmares. It says – 'approach with extreme caution and a priest...'

On the nose – Sticks of liquorice being massacred by globules of black treacle. With few survivors.

On the tongue – Don't be afraid, this is “Casper The Friendly Ghost Ale”.... Well, I like him.

On the subject – Under fairly new ownership, this Yorkshire firm show promising signs of maintaining their previously established high standards. I suspect the city walls of York won't hold them in for too much longer.

On the market – Spreading nicely, and their brewery is pretty much an open house. Glorious concept!

On the whole – 7/10

Full Review

After a week or so of being surrounded by a carpet of frozen snow, the damned stuff finally began to melt away today, but instead of feeling a sense of relief that I could finally walk to my car without fear of death – this pesky bottle of beer came along and made me wish that the whole world would ice-over again for at least another few days.

'Ghost Ale' is that pesky beer's name.

This is one of those nuisance beers which makes you want to relax by the fire and overthrow a small nation all at once. It soothes you and fires you up at the same rate, which happens to be the sort of feeling oddballs such as myself like to get off on, I might as well admit.

There's something darkly indulgent about it – so rich and fulsome is the experience. In fact, why don't I just be frank... this beer is sexy.

I'm talking about the sort of 'sexy' status which my younger self might have afforded the 'sexy' black car in Knight Rider. And I'm not speaking of the driver of that car, let me make that distinction abundantly clear.

No, it is that ridiculous jazzed-up Pontiac, 'Kit', with which this beer shares it sexiness. All dark, shiny and aloof, with a healthy attitude problem.

In fact, another feature that these two share is that they were both painstakingly designed and assembled – they're all bells and whistles and things that go 'ping', and I congratulate the boffins at York Brewery because, unlike the builders of 'Kit', they have created something unique here in the real world, and they should achieve recognition for the obvious success of their high-minded scheme.

This is a fine winter ale which makes you literately wish for awful weather. 

It's not every day you'll here me champion a creation such as that.