Duchy Old Ruby Ale

I've had the Duchy Traditional Ale before and it is quite a treat. So when I passed this lovely grey bottle with a sale sign underneath I grabbed it right away. The Duchy Traditional Ale is a very tasty English Ale that has a nice hoppy/malty flavour that reminds me, for some reason, of mushrooms. Now I'm not a huge mushroom fan so for those of you that read that and nearly vomited from the thought of a mushroom-flavoured beer swallow that food back down! Trust me, it only reminds me of mushrooms, it doesn't taste exactly like it. It's more like this: "Hmmm, this is a delicious beer, it's got such a unique taste, maybe it reminds me of something, maybe mushrooms, I suppose that's the closest thing I can think of that it reminds me of."

The thing is that most people I know who have tried this beer will agree with me on the mushroom thing, and they will also agree with me that it is pretty damn amazing. So do yourself a favour and try the Duchy Traditional Ale, but I'm reviewing the Duchy Old Ruby Ale and have not tried it yet.

I'm scoping the website for Duchy Originals out and there really is no description whatsoever for any of their beers. Turns out that they make a lot of different kinds of food though. You know what? That is kinda cool. Maybe their food sucks, but I'm betting that at least some of it is probably pretty decent because what I have tried of their beers so far (see last paragraph) is great.

Somehow I've managed to come across the fact that this beer I am about to try is UK's number one organic bottled ale. That's pretty good...? I do remember a past review of Wells' IPA where they claimed to be the number one imported IPA and then it turned out to be kinda crap (well just more like an English Ale, but not a great English Ale). Oh, also, Duchy Originals is affiliated with the Prince of Wales. It's on the website.

It pours out fairly golden, slight reddishness, clean looking. The first sip is quite delicious. It's very much like an English Ale but a bit sweeter and lighter. I usually wouldn't be a fan of such a light beer but this is very pleasant and sweet. Kind of reminds me a bit of a good lager mixed with a tasty amber beer. I just let my girlfriend try it and she liked it, however she also said: "I'm surprised you like it - it's very weak."

I think that is a good indication of what kind of beer this is. It's tasty and clean, seems to be of good quality, but it's not very strong or bold.

After eating a Whole Wheat Ritz cracker and then taking a sip, I'm finding that this beer becomes more like your average Ale. I'd say maybe it's better without food? Don't get me wrong, it's refreshing after food, but if you want the full flavour I think it would be best to drink this one on it's own. Usually I recommend food for harsher and more flavourful beers, so again this is just an indication of how strong the flavour is.

I would say that this is a good beer, however, it's not as good as the Tradition Ale that I've had many times from Duchy. That beer has a bit more of an interesting and stronger flavour to it.

78 % : Tasty beer, kind of like a more sweeter English Ale, or a nice crisp lager mixed with an amber ale. Clean, sweet, and refreshing. However, it's not as good as the Duchy Tradition Ale, it's not as great with food, and it's certainly a very light and weak in flavour type of beer.