Samuel Smths's legendary Yorkshire Stingo

What I’m going to write about now is a very special beer, in fact it’s so special that it’s the stuff of legends. Named after an 18th century slang word for strong or old ale, Samuel Smith’s Yorkshire Stingo is a bottle conditioned ale that is fermented in Yorkshire stone squares, and then aged in oak casks for over a year, in Sam Smith's underground cellars. Yeast and sugar are added when the ale is bottled to induce a second fermentation in the bottle.

Samuel Smith’s are Yorkshire’s oldest brewery, and can race their history back to 1758, a date that features prominently on the label for the company’s Yorkshire Stingo. This strong ale is brewed to a strength of 8.0% abv, before being aged in oak ale casks, as describes above, and unlike some strong ales, this classic and highly sought after beer, really does live up to its reputation. It is also rather hard to come by, although I did notice the other day that it is available on Amazon. It is normally available in bottled form only, but back in November 2019, Sam’s announced that for the first time ever, Yorkshire Stingo the beer would be served straight from an oak cask at a limited number of their London pubs. This would be from the end of November until Christmas.

Same of you might recall my attempts to track this legendary beer down, when I visited the Princess Louise, a beautifully restored, Victorian masterpiece in Holborn, and one of the jewels of Sam Smith’s tied, London estate. I wrote at the time how my excitement had mounted when, after entering the pub, I noticed a pump, advertising “Oak barrel-aged” Yorkshire Stingo. That joy quickly turned to gloom, when the barman informed me, stocks had run out. To make matters worse, he didn’t know when the pub would be getting more in.

Disappointed or what?? Word had obviously been passed around on the beer bush telegraph, although as a few lucky enthusiasts had revealed, this wasn’t a just a publicity stunt, and the beer had actually been on sale. I wrote at the time that I was unlikely to be visiting the capital this side of Christmas, not knowing that the worst pandemic in just over a century was slowly making it was from central China, and out across the entire globe. There would be no further attempts to track down Yorkshire Stingo, for a couple of years, and it wasn’t until yesterday, in fact, that I finally managed to sample this legendary beer for the first time.

If Yorkshire Stingo is only available in cask, on special occasions, it is almost as rare in bottled form as well. The Christmas before last (2022), I was fortunate to pick up a bottle at Armstrong’s – an independent, family-owned business in East Grinstead. I fully intended on drinking this bottler over the festive season but after noticing the BBE date of Dec 23, on the neck of the bottle, I decided to give it another year. I noticed the bottle the other day, so thought that I’d better crack it open, but fortunately the contents proved none the worse for being 3 months passed that date.

Before opening the bottle, I read the back label which described how 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, as and when necessary. Yorkshire Stingo is matured in these well-used oak casks, which over the years will have absorbed more and more of the character of the ale that began its life by being fermented in stone Yorkshire squares. As this strong, special ale slowly matures in the brewery cellar, it picks up flavours of vine fruit, raisins, treacle toffee, Christmas pudding and slight oaky tones.

These aromas were apparent as soon as I cracked open the crown cap, and when I first tasted the beer, I discovered a slight vinous taste that enhanced the flavour of the beer, rather than detracting from it. The beer itself, poured with a tight, fluffy head, which subsided very slowly. Despite being bottle conditioned, the beer was wonderfully clear, with a deep amber colour, that contrasted well with the dense, white head. Due to its strength, I have consumed the bottle over the course of two evenings – partially re-capped it, and placed it in the fridge, until earlier this evening.

I can therefore thoroughly recommend Yorkshire Stingo, should you be lucky enough to come across a bottle. Samuel Smith’s, of course, produce a wide range of bottled beers, as you can see from the photo, and I still have a few other interesting ones to try. I purchased them from the aforementioned Armstrong’s of East Grinstead, which appears to be the nearest Sam Smith’s stockist to here, and I shall be writing about a few of them, in a subsequent post.