7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

Bottled. Hazy ambery brown colour with a small off-white head-. Aroma is sweet malts, some rhum, mild caramel, toffee, alcohol as well as some slight ripe fruity elements. Flavour does follow the aroma quite well, but also has some syrupy and mild datelike sweetness.

7.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Deep, super dark brown coloured body with an almost black, very oily glow and a very tiny, super-fast-dying tan head that shows at about a centimetre tall, perhaps. Aroma of alcohol, pitted fruit, caramel, prunes, figs, anise, coriander seed, licorice, molasses and a ton of allspice towards the end. Medium to Full-bodied; Deep robust chocolate and pitted fruit flavours dominate with full prunes, raisins, figs, earth, nuts, toffee, caramelised sugars and a heavy hand of grapes and peated malt notes that have a very strong flavour, but leave the finish a douch bitter. Aftertaste shows the deeper, more astringent, stronger and deeper notes that hit with molasses, spice, chocolate and of course the pitted fruits which are the strongest by far and probably the sweetes. Overall, a deep and very pungent beer that hits all the right notes in terms of complexity, pungency, astringency, flavours and depth, but is a bit too potent, not enough subtlety or restraint shows through and this is good for the quantity/size bottle that was available and if this actually did mellow out in the short-ish time that I've had it, then I would not want to drink it fresh! I sampled this caged and corked bottle purchased from BevMo! in Manhattan Beach (Los Angeles), California on 23-February-2016 for US$17,49 sampled exactly four years after purchasing this one on 23-February-2020, a day before leaving for San Diego, California.

7

Backlog

7

Backlog

7

Backlog

6.5

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Bottle - murky purplish brown - fuzzy pour with no head - nose of rum, alcohol, plum, oak, treacle - flavor is sweet, but not in the cloying way I feared implied by the nose - dark fruit, moderate spiciness - there is an understated funkiness to it that adds an appreciated depth - however, it is overall a bit muddy and indistinct - overall, it presents like a rum-barrel quad - it's greater than the sum of it's parts, but still only moderately enjoyable.

8.5

Nice! Spices, very woody, some rum. Plenty of barrel there. Boozy, thick, herbal.

9.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 10 | Flavor - 10 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 10

Vom Fass (mit 12.5%) im Stone Brewing Berlin 2017-10 getrunken. Dieser braunroter Traum von ein Bier bringt eine gehöhrige Aromavielfalt durch den Einsatz von Ingwer, Orangenschalen und Kakaobohnen mit sich. Die Rumfassreifung bringt dazu noch neben einer moderaten Süße von Karamell auch noch wunderebare Eichennoten mit sich. Ein Traum von einem Bier.