Brewery: Adnams [spotted an old advertisement for a beer called ‘Tally-Ho Old Strong Ale’, brewed by Adnams. I’d never heard of it before, despite being reasonably familiar with the range of Adnams bottled ales, so I assumed it was a long-dead vintage from a bygone era, presumably the 1950s.

Then, a couple of weeks later I nipped along to the sorting office to pick up a missed parcel and opened it to discover a bottle of 2009 vintage Tally-Ho, courtesy of Sean Clark at Adnams. As far as I can work out, it seems that Adnams have been brewing small-cask runs of Tally-Ho every year since 1880, but this year is the first time that they’ve produced a bottled (limited edition and bottle-conditioned) version of this strong, barley-wine style, winter ale. Well, it’s the first bottled run for a good while, at least; ‘in cask and bottle’ is printed on the aforementioned ad poster, so it has been bottled at some point before now.

Anyhow, a very handsome, 330ml bottle it is, too, elegantly lettered and with a subtle, red-jacketed huntsman motif. The ale itself poured a lovely dark chestnut colour with ruby highlights and a thinnish head. No trouble with sediment, despite the bottle conditioning. Dried fruit aromas wafted from bottle and glass alike and the flavours were all about warming yourself in front of an open fire on a crisp winter’s day: rich, smoky chocolate, spiked with spicy, peppery notes, all carried on a marvellously creamy mouth-feel; it put me in mind of a rich, dark-chocolate mousse (you know, one of those Gü ones that cost twice as much as anything else but are definitely worth the extra…)

So, in conclusion: I’d say that Tally-Ho is an extremely palatable, eminently sippable and quite delicious strong winter ale that’s just my sort of thing. I’ll be keeping an eye out for this one and although a 24-pack at £35.75 might be a little rich for my current beer-budget, if I can find an outlet selling singles then I’ll definitely be in there for a half-dozen.

Thank you very much indeed to the folks at Adnams for sending this one along for me to try.