330ml bottle. Dry, sweetish and slightly roasty with some sherry notes, licorice, burnt malts, molasses, hints of tart berries, oak and honey. A bit harsh and unbalanced.

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color stout with a large dark brown foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of black cholate notes with some bourbon and light Xeres/vinous notes withs some light berry notes. Taste is also a mix of black chocolate notes with light residual sugar and bourbon and Xeres/vinous notes with some berry notes also perceptible. Body is full with good carbonation. Complex mix of flavours which is enjoyable though a little bit overwhelming at time.

Another original take on the barrel aged Cellar Series of porters and stouts by Estonia's leading craft brewery, classy bottle sealed with - in this case bright orange - wax, as usual. Audibly fizzing, deep beige (with almost pinkish tinge), open head, somewhat mousy initially but quickly reduced to a thin ring; black robe with hazy wine red edges (of not more than a few millimeters). Strong bouquet of molasses, bitter chocolate, old damp oak wood (moldy even), liquorice indeed, some cassis but not overwhelmingly fruity even if it contains blackcurrants, cough syrup, treacle, incense, toffee, bourbon and sweet sherry but the latter a bit less obviously so, 'drop', hints of burnt sugar, roasted pecan nuts, paraffin, praliné, dried porcini tucked away in the background. Dense, sweet onset but not overly sweet, candied dates, candied cherry note even, ripe pear, softly carbonated with a very thick, syrupy body; thick layers of oily chocolatey, toffeeish and cashew-nutty malts glide heavily over the tongue, adding more and more flavours as it goes, with indeed a blackcurrant effect popping up, providing a slight sourish accent and a touch of extra, subtle berry skin bitterness, which accentuates the more cappuccino-like bitterness of the malts in the end (even if a full-blown roasted coffee bitterness is handily avoided, justifying the 'porter' moniker). Quite outspoken tannic effects in the end, liquorice rising its head retronasally and on the root of the tongue in an unmistakable manner, while the bittersweet blackcurrant lingers about as well. Floral aspects retronasally, indeed honeyish and no doubt related to the heather honey, mingling with the vanilla-ish touch from the oak. Ends boozy but 'full' and nowhere astringent, the sweetness absorbs some of the booziness and the bourbon character appears a tad less obvious than expected, though still overruling the sherry factor. Long and heavy, molasses- and black chocolate-like bittersweet maltiness remains the main flavour here, though the liquorice (eventually turning very 'drop'-like) remains very, very present in the long run as well. Certainly intense and complex, but sometimes these craft brewers, feeling the need to come up with something new every damn time, lose themselves a bit in the combination of added flavours and for me that is exactly what is going on here: this beer is utterly solid in its basic structure, as usual for a strong dark Põhjala, but I remain unconvinced that blackcurrant and liquorice make such a good combo - especially in an imperial porter. Maybe I should have indeed cellared this Cellar Series variant a bit longer, but I cannot help feeling that the flavours clash a bit here. Still, if you like cassis and liquorice flavours in a strong dark beer, this will be completely your thing. Extra points for originality - or rather, for relentlessly coming up with new variations.

Bottle, 10.5%. Very dark brown with small beige head. Aroma is roasted malt, chocolate, barrel, sherry and a little liquorice. Flavour is roasted malt, chocolate, caramel, barrel, honey, sweet, bourbon, little vanilla, wood and warming.

KYGGK 120920. Dark brown color with a beige head. Aroma is honey, roasted malt. Flavor is honey, roasted malt, licorice, cocoa, wood, bourbon, black current. Very nice beer.

Smell of roasted malt. Black colour, brown head. Aroma of vanilla, roasted malt, tar. Sweet. Lively carbon.