Draught. Opaque black liquid with small to medium tan head. Aroma of ginger, chocolate, licorice, port wine, dried fruit, toffee and red berries. Taste is medium sweet and light bitter with notes of licorice, chocolate, red berries and ginger. Medium to full bodied with medium carbonation. Nice but a bit sour.

Keg at BD Sheps Bush. It pours jet black with a small tan head. The nose is earthy roast, toasty, cocoa, ginger bread, spice and brown bread. The taste is smooth, bitter-sweet, roasty, coffee, fiery ginger, charred wood, mild acidity, coffee and milky chocolate with a dry finish. Medium body and fine carbonation. Smooth and well-rounded. Good fun.

Keg at BDSB - London. Pours deep brown with a creamy tan head. The nose holds some dark malts, cinnamon and faint berries. Medium sweet flavor with up-front spices, toasted bread, cocoa, mellow bitterness. Medium bodied with fine to average carbonation. Decent balance on the finish with prominent winters spices, dry toast, dried berries, cinnamon. Very tasty beer.

330ml bottle from Beer Central, Sheffield - Weird one this. Cloudy mucky brown body, no head. Nose is a right old punch of spices, loads of ginger, a bit medicinal. Taste is warming and spicy again, powdered spices, but thin... too thin. A let down in appearance and mouthfeel, but gets you where it matters.

Draught @ Bishops Arms Plaza. Pours black with a rather small mocha head that leaves some sparse thick trace on the glass while dissipating. Smell is slightly malty and spicy with "vörtbröd", burnt caramel, dark roast coffee, ginger, cloves, black pepper corns, golden syrup and moist soil. Taste is sweet, tiny bitter, slightly malty and spicy with roasted malts, "vörtbröd", "julmust", burnt caramel, coffee, ginger, juniper berries, cloves, moist soil and hay. Mouthfeel is soft, round, tiny cloying sweet and medium bodied. Finish is sweet and slightly bitter with roasted malts, sweet rye bread, dark roast coffee, ginger snaps, juniper berries, moist soil and hay. Works but a bit too heavy on the spices to be truly enjoyable. Would have liked if a stout profile with only hints of gingerbread spices.

Keg at Craft Beer Co, Clerkenwell on 30th November 2014. Sepia with thin off-white foam. Creamy, gingery and roasty in aroma, and in-mouth with lactic notes and spices. Roasty finish with fruit. Zingy mouthfeel and plenty of body. Rated as a novelty beer.

Bottle. Tall Boys Beer Market, Leeds. Clear, very dark, chestnut brown. More or less headless. Dark chocolate. Milk chocolate. Dark, dried fruit. Hint of spice. Given a big swirl, and there’s woody liquorice in there, too. Taste is milky sweet. A little dry. Gentle bitter. Palate is soft, and smooth. Very soft carbonation. Drinks nowhere near 8.5%. Finishes sweet, turning light bitter. Expected more spice, and less sweet. Silly easy to drink, though.

Keg @ Old Gate, Hebden Bridge. Black with a thin head. Mainly a stout, but the bread in the name is apparent in its small wheat-grainy character that includes a light roasted malt aroma and taste.