Ridgeway's Criminally Bad Elf Barleywine-Style Ale

Yes I know that Christmas is over but I still had one Christmas theme beer left over. The beer I speak of is Ridgeway’s Criminally Bad Elf Barleywine-Style ale, 10.0% ABV. This comes to use from Oxfordshire England. Criminally Bad Elf pours a deep cooper hue with a one and three quarter tan head that dissipates evenly. I found tiny amounts of light coming through the glass with great amounts of carbonation stream form the bottom to the top. The aroma on Criminally Bad Elf is big with touches of toffee, scents of alcohol bitterness. The taste is somewhat similar to the aroma. Criminally Bad Elf has a nice toffee flavor up front followed be a caramel taste that leads into a boozy bitterness on the backend.  There is a bitter orange/citrus flavor here as well. The mouth feel is medium; you can really taste the 10.0% ABV on this. Criminally Bad Elf finishes strong and bitter. The aftertaste is of bitter toffee and a bitter citrus orange. This Criminally Bad Elf is not that bad, so it gets a high C+. I enjoyed this beer, but I thought that the alcohol was to present here and should’ve been toned down a bit. But Ridgeway should not lower ABV, 10.0% is fine with me. Criminally Bad Elf just needs a little more with the toffee and caramel flavors to mask the big alcohol flavor and I think we’d have a darn good beer here, not that it’s bad now, but could be made better. Would I have this again? I might but I am not rushing out to have Criminally Bad Elf again.  So go out and try Ridgeway’s Criminally Bad Elf Barleywine-Style ale, and see how you like it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!