Black Sheep Riggwelter

Last Thursday night we went to the Oakwood Beer Festival, held in the college buildings in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. This year's theme was beer from Sheep Country and the name of the Festival was The Great Baa! There were beers, wines and ciders from all the regions you would associate with sheep farming ~ such as Yorkshire, East Anglia, Wales and even Australia. Some of the bars were sponsored by famous breweries ~ the first one contained beers from Hardy & Hanson's, Wentworth and Black Sheep. It was at this bar that we had our first couple of drinks. We started on a Wentworth Oatmeal Stout and then went on to a beer we hadn't had for a ...

Riggwelter: from the Old Norse words "rigg", meaning back or shoulder and "velte", to overturn. If a sheep rolls over onto its back and can't get up without help, local Dales dialect says it is rigged or riggwelted. Riggwelter is a full flavoured strong Yorkshire ale brewed using our unusual Yorkshire Square fermentation system. The result is a well balanced, deep chestnut coloured ale. With its distinctive roast malt, Golding hops and banana fruit aromas, Riggwelter has the strongest and most complex flavour of all the Black Sheep beers. ABV 5.7% Tasting Notes: Riggwelter comes across immediately as rich, ...

I'd better start off by telling you the strange meaning of the name of this rather fine ale. In yourkshire tounge (love it or hate it) rigged means to be drunk or fallen over on your back. And the welter part of the name comes from a sheep. As depicted on the front of the bottle (or pump) a pissed sheep. The ale iteslf is a proper real ale and has a very distinctive dark hops flavour, which gives it a hint of an aftertaste similar to a very mild guiness. But this is a much lighter ale which goes down smooth and has a nice hoppy flavour. I would recomend this ale to anyone. The flavour is far beter straight from the tap because the bottled beer ...