33 cl bottle @ hotel room, San Diego. Aroma has sweet licorice tones, smoke and leather shoes. Flavour has somewhat salty licorice, sweet cocoa notes, some smoke. Finishes with cough drops. Good, although a bit too salty and herbal. Gotta love the vacuum cleaner on the label and the good licorice.

355ml bottle. Pours dark brown with a small head. Aroma of roasty malts, hints of smoke, grassy hops, ash, leather and syrup. Taste is hoppy, crisp and slightly roasty with hints of smoke, ash, licorice, leather and syrup. Finish is hoppy, crisp and sweetish with loads of good licorice, some roastiness, smoke and ash. Interesting.

Licorice nose, pine accents. Black, medium tan head with decent retention. Charred oak, smoke, pine, some baker’s chocolate. Resinous. Light body, moderate carbonation. Smoked IDA, not overly hoppy, not overly smoked.

Bottled (Firmabier)
Dark brown color, brownish firm head, some lace. Aroma has licorice, some smoke and fruity hops. Medium-bodied. Front is roasted maltyness, then light smoke, some sweet notes and salty liquerice. Long aftertaste has hoppyness. Complex, good beer.

Pours dep brown into a snifter. Mocha head with medium retention recedes to mottle surface. Sweet pit fruit and pine aromas. Creamy dark caramel and oak upfront turning to s’mores before the lasting charred pepper skin finish.

On draught at 3Crow Tavern, 8/1/15.
Dark chestnut-mahogany liquid shows moderate clarity and a dark beige head of moderate retention.
Sweet, crusty bread in the nose mixes with sugarplums, dark berries and light vanilla, ending with soft smokiness and very light caramel sweetness. The hops are woven in very well and don’t harry the aroma with any obnoxious pine or heavy acidity. The wintergreen-floral-white grapefruit notes are actually quite pleasing and despite not loving dark IPAs, they work just fine here, helping brighten the darker notes of the malt. Alcohol concealed and no flaws.
Sweet, simple chocolate and dry toffee notes give way to pleasant, easygoing pine juice and light tropical fruitiness (pineapple, mango). Wintergreen and a bit of dry, crusty brown bread begin to dry things out but eventually end with more light caramel and vanilla-like sweetness. Ample carbonation, malty, supple texture, alcohol well-concealed. Very, very drinkable for its size and I like the lack of any heavily bready malts or obnoxiously resinous hops. If I was forced to drink more black IPAs, this would be high up on my list.

Sampled from bottle @ Leuven Innovation Beer Festival. Opaque dark brown to black color, average sized off-white to beige head. Smell and taste malts, lightly smoke, hops, a hint of sweetness. Kind of tastes like a mix between a black IPA and a smoke beer and you know what, I kind of like it. It somehow blends together quite nicely with a slight fruity and bitter finish. Good one, well brewed.

Bottle. Black. Large tan head. Smells of orange, chocolate, pine. Taste is slightly smoky wood, pine, grapefruit, more smoke. Yum!! ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

12 ounce bottle from Wine Warehouse. Dark brown, large foamy tan head, good retention. Lots of very large floating particles. Aroma of smoked salt, chocolate, herbal hops. The taste is dark fruits, chocolate, smoke, roasted malt. Medium bodied, high carbonation, slightly astringent. A lot to like here but also seems poorly executed.