Festive Pudding Ale from Greene King comes in a clear bottle so you can see the amazing ruby coloured ale inside and it was colour that sold it to me immediately. It has to be the most perfect ruby coloured ale, although the head is very disappointing; only briefly forming a thin loose layer before rapidly disappearing and leaving a flat headless pint.
The aroma isn't strong but it's malty and fruity; it's not looking bad at all up to this point so I had reasonably high hopes for the taste test. First sip isn't bad with a sweet malty flavour and a slight hint of treacle but then it has the weirdest aftertaste: Is it biscuit? Perhaps grapefruit? Possibly cardboard? Maybe even dirty water? Certainly no taste at all reminiscent of Christmas, never mind Christmas pudding.
The mouthfeel is just as weird; it's thin-medium bodied with decent carbonation but the bubbles are so harsh that my tongue felt like it had been rubbed with wire wool. My tongue was tingling for ages after drinking it. Supposedly 6% ABV, it doesn't feel anything like that strong and I would have put it more at around half that.
Apart from the name, there's nothing festive about Greene King's Festive Pudding Ale and other than the perfect ruby colour, it doesn't have much going for it. I still drank it all, of course!
I wouldn't recommend this one so Ale not Be Seeing You again, Festive Pudding Ale.
6% ABV
My rating:
I remember quite enjoying this but thought they'd stopped brewing it, where did you find this one?!
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