Bottle shared at Leighton’s place. 25/08/2015. Bottle from GBBF. Aroma is toasted coconut, earthy ashy roast, charcoal, oyster. Pitch black coloured pour with a lasting frothy mid tan head. Flavour is composed of ashy charcoal. cocoa, toasted coocnut, dry roast coffee, ashy. Bitter roast in the finsh. Palate is medium full, moderate carbonation. Ok some earthy mushroom.

Bottle thanks to Fergus. It pours near black with a decent beige head. The nose is rich, toasty, liquorice, charred aspect, plum, prune, coffee and chocolate cake. The taste is smooth, toasty, chocolate, rich roast, robust, burnt fruit cake, ashy, cocoa and light pepper with a smooth, toasty finish. Medium body and moderate carbonation. Good body and drinkability. Nice one.

Bottle shared in London - many thanks to Fergus. Pours deep black-brown with a frothy khaki head. Dry roasty malts in the nose, cocoa, ash. Medium sweet flavor with burnt wood, earth, chocolate, dried dark fruits. Medium bodied with fine carbonation and velvety texture. Fairly sweet on the finish, more ashy roast, burnt earth, sugary chocolate, raisins. Not bad overall.

Bottle from Schnucks. Aroma is of roasted, smoky malts. Appearance is opaque black with 1 finger-width beige head and trace lacing. Taste is roasted malt with dominant smoky flavor with moderate bitterness. Palate is surprisingly light-to-medium bodied with thin texture, minimal carbonation and long bitter finish. Overall, a good beer but a little thin and a little more bitter than I’d prefer for the style beyond just the smokiness. Still good, but there are better ones out there.

American stout from this renowned brewery, with a very dark, hazy burgundy colour, practically black, under a creamy, lacing, dense, tan head with very good retention. Strong and very pleasant, flawless aroma of espresso and coffee beans, cocoa powder and meat broth all working well together and forming a ’true’ stout experience, hoppy hints of black pepper and grapefruit peel (I even fancy myself in a black IPA for a brief moment), wet leather, dry autumn leaves, peat, ’blood’ (iron in a natural kind of way), brown bread, chestnuts, dried plums, subtle hints of cigar tobacco, elderberries and whisky, even a very subtle touch of sweet cherries as it warms up - in fact, it becomes sweeter and ’friendlier’ as a whole when warming up, so I’d recommend serving this at cellar temperature and letting it warm to room temperature to be able to fully savour it. Dried fruits in the onset, only restrainedly ’raisin and dates’ sweetishness but also bittering already a bit on the tip of the tongue; creamy, soft mouthfeel with finely sparkling carbo, smooth, with a full, decent maltiness growing ’darker and darker’ in the end; deeply nutty at first but already with a big dosis of bitter chocolate, and a clear coffee-like roasted bitterness, already well noticeable in the beginning, but gaining strength as it evolves and eventually supporting a generous dosis of peppery, spicy, long-lasting, resinous hops and some lingering yeastiness, though it is still the ’black coffee roastedness’ which establishes itself as the final impression; alcohol remains almost perfectly hidden (as it should be in a beer of this ABV). Dry, smooth but coffeeish and bitter with a strong hop bitterness in the end: this is indeed a very typical and well-crafted example of the ’ordinary American stout’ style (if such a thing exists), related to the old European dry and export stouts. I particularly like the fact that it keeps an overall bitter flavour throughout its palate and ends satisfyingly dry - that is, no cloying sweetness at all. Extremely well-balanced.

355ml bottle from Saveur-Biere.com. Pours opaque black with thin tan head. Light fudge / coffee aroma. Great bitter / roasted malt taste. I like.

[2/16/15] Draught at Cameron’s Inn in Half Moon Bay. Black with a nice brown head. Nice roasty aroma with dark chocolate and coffee. Bittersweetish roasty flavor with coffee and some dark chocolate. Creamy and slightly watery nitro mouthfeel. Good.