Can from Dranken Geers, Oostakker. Pours hazy black with a big, slowly thinning, frothy, dark beige head. Aroma of milk chocolate, biscuit, mocha, chocolate cake, fig, pistachio, peanut, vanilla. Taste is medium malty sweet, very chocolatey with nutty notes, touch of fig, sourish brambleberries even, slight biscuit & vanilla base supporting bitter mocha & toast. Dryish, herbal hoppy finish, toasty, lingering dark chocolate & mocha, some warming herbal liqueur-like alcohol. Medium body, creamy texture, soft carbonation. Clean Stout, very drinkable indeed, remarkable in its 'normality'.

On tap @Luppolo Station (Rome). Nera, densa, impenetrabile, schiuma colore cappuccino media. Al naso note di cioccolata, caffè, leggera liquirizia, toffee. In bocca è abbastanza ben equilibrata, dolce all'attacco con chiusura amara media. Corpo pieno, carbonazione media. Mi aspettavo di più.

Keg at the Moor vaults bermondsey. A jet black coloured pour with a lasting dark tan head. Aroma is tangy cakey malts dried fruit. Fruit and nut, jammy fruits, smooth roast. Flavour is composed of semi sweet, tangy dried fruit, fruit cake, tangy apple, woody notes, light plastic,. Palate is medium sweet, oily, moderate carbonation. Lingering earthy ashy roast.

On tap at the brewery tap Bermondsey. black beer lasting tan head. cream and dark chocolate aroma. dark chocolate flavour. yes a good string export stout. good flavours. hides and well. good dryness good dark chocolate. espresso coffee.

Strong ('double') version of the familiar Moor Stout, apparently a new one in Moor's range, not to be confused with the barrel aged double stouts they made in collaboration with La Quince (though this may well be the basic beer of that series). Can from Geers in Oostakker near Ghent. Irregularly shaped, yellowish 'mocha' beige, thick but opening, foamy head on a jet black beer with only a very thin burgundy edge (probably less than a millimetre). Strong black coffee in the nose, cold espresso, ground walnuts, burnt toast, 'fondant' chocolate, dried prunes, 'haemoglobin', hard caramel, leather, dried banana peel, touch of gin. Clean onset, restrained in fruitiness and in sweetness, with a deep sourish undertone in the background, dried fig and prune notes but very subtle, softish carb, full and oily mouthfeel, a bit creamy even. Hard-caramel and walnutty maltiness, very toasty with bitterness prevailing over any sweetness; clear 'blood'-like iron at its edges but feeling natural for a stout. Ends with strong black coffee roastedness, mouth-fillingly bitter with a well-placed peppery hop 'sting' and lingering coffee flavours highlighted by a soft glow of gin-like alcohol. Quite straightforward, not the showy, overburdened fancy imperial stout kind we see so often these days, but - like many Moor beers - a very solidly built, restrained, somewhat 'old school' beer, reminiscent of the double stouts that used to come out of the budding American craft beer culture a couple of decades ago, but also of the old export and foreign stout cluster. Easygoing, warming and very tasty, I love a good old school stout like this.