bottle - Black pour with a sizeable tan head. This beer has a robust roast malt and chocolate aroma. The flavor also has some chocolate as well as a touch of licorice. My bottle only seemed moderately hoppy and given other ratings here, that made me wonder. Maybe it was an old bottle and the hops was no longer as sharp? Solid beer.

(Bottle, thanks to Marsiblursi) Sampled at a tasting night at Marsiblursi’s place. Dark brown to black color, brown head. Chocolate, green apples and hops scent. Sweet coffee taste, very high roasted coffee aftertaste. Spritzy mouthfeel from high co2. Medium high bitterness.

(Bottle 65 cl) Completely black and opaque with a handsome and frothy, light brown head - sort of shaving foam style. Aroma of roasted malt and vanilla. Fairly light body with notes of lightly burned malt and also vanilla in the flavour. Dry, burned, lightly bitter finish. Pleasant. 061006

’04-’05 bomber shared by SuIIy on 4/9/06
Deep cocoa brown colored body, is mostly clear upon settling, with very deep magenta highlights on the edges. Head is light tan colored, fairly rapidly fading to ring and partial cover, with minimal lacing.
The nose throws plenty of burnt, ashen malt notes, a smooth, medium-dry vanilla note in the background and plenty of orange-chocolate that seems rather burly and actually envelopes the roasted notes. Some pine resin notes emerge, mostly dry, bitter, not overly aromatic, while hints of black coffee continue to persist on end. Hops are muted at this point, but still provide large amounts of bitterness, while the chocolate is dry, chalk-like and rather dulling to the nose.
The flavor is at first filled with crunchy, dry, old coffee, quickly adding mildly sweet milk chocolate notes. However, the sweetness does not seem to last long as it begins to get lost in an astringent roastiness that carries with it a mix of dry orange and heavily dry hop-leafiness. A very dry, ashy-chalky note hangs on the palate. Hard bite on the end of dry malts that have no where to go (too filtered, leading to not a comforting or supportive enough texture). That said, the flavor is still very true to an American porter, with plenty of American bittering hops. Overall, however, I just find it too dry, hard and dull. The carbonation is low, however, and the body lightly chewy, though watery on the end upon warming. Alcohol is well-concealed throughout the flavor and aroma.

Pitch black beer with a little grey-ochre rim for head. Coffee, cigarette ash, chocolate - but nowhere bitter smelling !! Quite surprising. Finish with faraway moccha or coffee cream, and - really sorry! - vomit. Surprising hops initially in the taste, going over in coffee bean sweets, with a dry, but hardly stout-like dark malts background. Very well bodied, slick but pleasing, coffee/cigarette aromas to the very last end. I’d be hypocritical pretending not to like this, but it is unsettling in some ways, not at all what the name would suggest.