Samuel Smith's Yorkshire Stingo

Review Date 9/27/2009 Last Updated 11/14/2024 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Barleywine   Brewery: Samuel Smith   Country: England   State: N/A   $ Per OZ: $.46 (B)   ABV: 8%

It really seems that 2009 is shaping up as the year for large brewers with a footing in history deciding to come up with new and interesting beers to send to America. Guinness did it first with their 250th Anniversary Stout. Next up was Germany's Spaten with their Munchen Dunkel. And now, England's esteemed Samuel Smith Brewery joins the party by releasing a new beer called Yorkshire Stingo.

Yorkshire Stingo is a notable beer on several counts, and not solely because it's the first new beer I can ever recall from this Yorkshire, England, brewery. Sam Smith's traces its lineage all the way back to 1758, though I have to confess I haven't been drinking their beer that long. Sam and I only go back as far as the mid eighties.

No, Samuel Smith's Yorkshire Stingo is also the strongest beer yet from the brewer who gives us a decidedly under-strength Imperial Stout, and therefore of further interest to dedicated beer lovers everywhere. Hence the name: "Stingo" is eighteenth century slang for strong beer.

Yorkshire Stingo is laboriously produced, first in the brewing process and then in the aging. Samuel Smith's uses a unique Yorkshire Squares fermenting scheme to make its ales, and Yorkshire Stingo is no exception. But the beer undergoes a full year's aging in old brewery oak casks; my bottle has "Brewed in 2008" printed on it.

Sam Smith Yorkshire Stingo pours to a brilliant amber color with a medium sized head formation of tightly packed bubbles and a powerful nose of vanilla and fresh bread. A fine layer of Brussels lace coats the sides of my brandy snifter glass, the wide mouth of which allows me to more fully appreciate the wealth of aromas that pour forth from this treat.

The body is a bit thinner than I expected, though the beer certainly does not lack in flavor: woody oak, rich vanilla, dark fruity raisin, cinnamon, fresh bread, and toffee all vie for the attention of your taste buds. Interestingly enough, the combination of cinnamon, vanilla, raisin, and bread flavors remind me of a hot bread pudding.

In the finish, some grassy, decidedly English hops come through and add a balancing presence. There's an immense alcohol warmth here, too, one that implies a heft greater than the true 8% by volume strength. Brewers like to condition beer in whiskey barrels for added depth and character; Samuel Smith's chose to use its own instead. Because of this, one does not perceive the usual whiskey notes, the wood definitely contributes its own character.

I'm really enjoying this complex and flavorful sipping beer. Well worth trying a bottle, though I'm thinking it's definitely overpriced at $10.99 for a 550 ml bottle. One could obtain an even more complex six-pack of Bigfoot Barleywine for about the same price (maybe less). Still a solid four star brew, maybe four and a half, though the price rounds it down to four for sure.

My recommendation is to try it. But you'd best hurry. Only 2000 cases were made, and the next batch won't be released until the next Yorkshire Day in England: August 1, 2010 .

Update 11/14/2024: I have not seen Yorkshire Stingo available for years, so when I was shopping for beer at Half Time Beverage I snagged a bottle quicker than you can say, well, Yorkshire Stingo. I did not bat an eye at the $15 price tag for my bottle (Total Wine sells it for $8.49 according to their website, though again, I have not seen it there). This is for a 550ML, or 18.6 ounce bottle. My bottle gives the alcohol content at 8% by volume. The neck of my bottle is marked with a best by date of 10JUL27. It might go longer than that I think, and if I can score a few more bottles, I will let you know.

From the brewery website:

Some of the oak casks at Samuel Smith’s date back more than a century with the individual oak staves being replaced by the Old Brewery coopers over the years. Gradually the casks soak in more & more of the character of the ale fermented in stone Yorkshire squares. Yorkshire Stingo is matured in these well-used oak casks in the brewery’s cellars deriving fruit, raisin, treacle toffee, Christmas pudding and slight oaky flavours, before being further naturally conditioned in bottle.

Ingredients • water, malted barley, cane sugar, hops, yeast.

Samuel Smith’s Yorkshire Stingo pours to a hazy chestnut color with a thick creamy tan head and a nose of dark fruit and toasted oak. Taking a sip the beer is immediately dark fruity and malty. It’s chocolaty, and flinty too. There are notes of raisin and plum pudding and more of woody oak. It’s nutty and finishes warm with alcohol and gently bitter with hops.I am definitely getting more wood than I seem to have the first time I tried this one, and that's a good thing. I'm also giving it a full five stars, even at the price I paid. If Total Wine does indeed have it for $8.49, it's a steal, and I will be stocking up for sure.

Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??