a-leaping!

On the tenth day of Beermas I went and bought for me

Ten horses leaping

Nine feet a-floating

Eight icicles dripping

Seven sea monsters swimming

Six owls nesting

Five malts of gold

Four avian hallucinations

Three French magicians

Two love ya dearlies

And the simplest answer there could be 

It could have been more imaginative, but it certainly could have been less.  Although to be honest, I have not actually seen a perfect match for lords a-leaping on a beer bottle.  The horses are lordly by themselves, but I guess we can imagine some lords having a hunt.  It's an English beer too, Adnams, so definitely the sort you would imagine hunting and launching their fine steeds over walls and fences.  Tally-ho indeed.

Like a good barleywine, it's a rich dark brown with a sweet yet earthy scent.  There's some head, light colored, not awfully abundant.  It's not as syrupy as more local barleywines, although there's a hint of the barrel in it, with more of an apple juice/cider taste.  Fairly clean taste, not a lot of aftertaste, although there is just a hint of buildup.  There's even a little bit of banana lurking behind the apple in the aroma, and after a while there's some in the taste as well.  It starts out light, but as befitting a barleywine it seems to grow and gain in volume and weight.  It's a good balance of light and heavy, fruit, alcohol and wood playing together nicely.