Thin coarseish brown head. Opaque black body. Earthy roasty licorice and powerful floral fruity hop aroma. Dry-sweet roasty earthy tropical fruit taste with mealy resiny notes. Full-bodied. Dry-bitter resiny fruity aftertaste lingers for a long time. Very complex and cacophonic, without being really disharmonic. Bitterness settles in mouth and lasts and lasts. Very nice and surprisingly drinkable. (0.33l bottle, Dr Jekyll’s, Oslo.)

Clearish brown coloured body with almost no head and a very thin look on the edges of the glass - odd. Aroma of a stone beer; yep - really hoppy, almost no malt or caramel showing through (odd from the colour), but the grass and floral essences are there. Medium-bodied; Chewy mouthful, a lot of potent hops hit the front with a decent malt backbone and a touch of alcohol and grass at the end. Aftertaste shows a bit of caramelisation and some more hops. Overall, a standard Stone beer - I don’t see much from BrewDog in this, and that’s sad. This one lacked carbonation and a head, failed in the malt balance and left no other strong flavours in the mouth. If they repackaged this as a simply Stone beer, I could imagine this coming straight from San Diego. I wish BrewDog had more of an influence on this or just left their names off of it, and had it brewed in the US. I sampled this 33 cL bottle, from Batch #298, somehow bottled on Christmas Day 2010?!?!? Purchased at Half Time in Poughkeepsie, New York on 27-Nov-2009, sampled at home in Washington on 22-December-2009.

Bottle, 8.6%. Good hop aroma, slightly grassy, a little roasted barley. Almost black colour, red shine. Small stable light brown head. The flavour starts off with a good roasted note with a little barley bitterness. Then comes a good grassy hop flavour. Good.

33 cL bottle. Pours dark brown with a redish glare and huge tan head. Aroma is roasted malt and solid hoppy. Dark chocolate and hoppy fruity flavoured. Light spiced note. Ends dry and spiced. Smooth roasted and bitter into a dry and lingering slight spiced finish.

33cl Bottle, traded in person with cgarvieuk, thanks Craig! This is one interesting brew, weird even. Black colour, creamy beige head. Aroma of liquorice or drop, stophoest (another Dutch candy), resin and piny hops, molasses and alcohol. Flavour is pine needles, hoppy, malty, a bit of stophoest, menthol and sugar in the bitter finish. Medium bodied. Weird, just weird. And tasty, but a bit off-balance.

On Tap. A Black IPA. Pours with a near black body and a large, fluffy brown head. Aroma of hops, pine, stickiness, brown sugar, toffee and chocolate (dry) notes. Taste is hops, pine, roast and earth. Nice and drinkable. Slightly warming. Medium to light bubbles with a decently hefty mouthfeel.
Bottle I had, I found extremely metallic! would drop it down to about a 3.1, but will stick with the higher rating.

Draft at Bavarian Lodge, 11 oz. goblet, $7.50. Black color, with a half-finger tan stoutish head. I closed my eyes to smell it without seeing the back beer, and imagined a citrussy, fresh IPA hop. The spectral smell of Belgian special and pilsener malts, also a touch of wintergreen. The first brings me to the end of a race between chocolate roast malts and big IIPA hops… and… it’s a tie! A warming feel comes from the malts as much as from the alcohol. In spite of the alcohol and some dark roasted hops, it’s an easy drinking beer. But that doesn’t keep a pleasant malty and hop bitter aftertaste from settling on the back of my soft palate.

clear amber, small smooth ligt brown head. sweeet fruity aroma, wood, faint dark berries. flavor is hoppy, dry, woody notes,

Bottle 33 cl. Pours a dark reddish brown with a beige head. Aroma of roasted malts and citrusy hops. Solid body, lots of roasted malts and vanilla, fruit and spicy hops with quite some malt bitterness. Fruity and spicy. Lovely. 161209