Bottle from Bobby’s in Santa Clara, CA. Pours ruddy dark amber with a creamy beige head. Rich malty aroma. Suggests a little brown sugar. Hint of yeast. Med body. Flavor is malty, yeasty, mixed fruit esters. It’s got a little bitterness, but it’s not really dry. Pretty good taste.

Bottle thanks to TURDFERGUSON: Poured a carbonated black with loads of bubbles, the head was light brown but left fast to a whispery head. Aroma is tobacco, dark fruits of dates and prunes, and sweet caramel malt. Taste is a bold dark fruit with strong burnt caramel malts, left a sticky feeling to the tongue.

16 ounce bottle from Bestway in Greensboro, NC. Love that store. Pours a clear ruby red color with a thin fizzy tan head.Decent head retention and lacing. Aroma of raisin, toffee, chocolate and some bready and spicy notes. Almost smells chewy, if that makes any sense. The taste is bready notes, banana, raisin and some metallic hop notes that are out of balance and tend to interfere rather than complement. Thin-medium bodied. Smells nice, decent otherwise.

Sampled from the tap at the 2010 GTMW. Poured a clear dark amber with a tan head that lasted throughout the beer. Aroma was full of sweet grain and candied sugars with a slight light fruit underlying. Flavor was similar with a lot of sweet grain and the candied sugars mellowed and a bit of fruit coming out in the finish.