Naylor's Premium Brew 1000 (10%)

I'm a frequent visitor to my not so local bottle shop in Headingley, Leeds.  Sometimes I can be driving and then find myself parked outside said shop.  I tell myself that it's more a calling than a compulsion.  That makes it all OK.  At my last 'calling' I asked the obligatory question, the question that you know you shouldn't really need to ask when faced with wall-to-wall choice: "what's new in stock?".  There are usually a few, but on this occasion I was presented with just the one, Naylor's Premium Brew 1000, 10% abv Strong Ale.  I quiped on Twitter that the beer sounds more like a futuristic kettle, but that's because I'd just finished a 10% beer and was feeling giddy.  This beer was brewed to celebrate Keighley (West Yorkshire) based Naylor's 1000th brew and was aged for two months before being bottled.  Naylor's began brewing in 2005 based at the Old White Bear pub in Crosshills (near Keighley), but sold the pub in 2006 to concentrate on brewing their hand-crafted ales.

Upon opening there were some roasted malt notes and it poured deep amber in colour, the roasted aroma  had moved on after pouring.  The initial taste was light and sweet and incredibly smooth, which then gave way to some bitterness and then a lingering fruity after-taste.  At 10% you won't be surprised to read that this was a warming beer!  I'm probably safe in assuming that this beer would lend well to ageing, if you are that way inclined, but why wait?