Cask, Royal Oak, Great Ayton, N.Yorks. A great get out of jail card this. Deep dark reddy brown with a smallish, lingering tan head. Fruity, roasted malt aroma. Toasty malts, dark choc, christmas cakey flavour. Quite rich. Had 6 pints of this in a few hours on top of 6 other misc pints + a few dark rums and I think the Old P was a big contributing factor to one of the worst morning afters of 08 !!

Cask-conditioned at the Pump House, Bristol 2/1/08. Ruby red with a decent off-white head that left plenty of lacing. Aroma of dark fruit, caramel and grassy hops. The mouth feel was vinous with more sweet malt and fruit flavours before a decent bitter finish. Very good.

Cask@GBBF2007. Deep amber colour, mediumsized beige head. Aroma is caramel, licorace and honey. Flavour is the same along with some wooden hints. Also alcohol (or something) shows as a small burning note.

Dark brown with a small off-white head. Toffee aroma with a hint of rubber. Sweet and slightly roast flavour that could do with some bitterness. 2.8
2013 on Christian Firtal. Toffee and dried fruit aroma. Sweet fruity and malty flavour.

Cask half-pint at NERAX on 5/4/07
Finally here it is in front of me. This was the first beer that I rated on RB and a beer that basically got me in to good beer (the bottled version). So 5 years later, with the unpasteurized, unfiltered version, it’s quite a milestone for me.
And to top things off, this one was one hell of a challenge to rate. As if old ale isnt already an obscure/vague enough style, this stuff didnt really strike me as the archetypal old ale. Not quite bright either, with still some light haziness, it’s hard to tell with these extremely dark beers what flavors/aromas are intended. Definitely it had lots of vinousness and cola notes. More roasted flavors than I would expect from an old ale, with sweet caramel and chocolate malts backed by soft pale malts. Fairly strong attenuation, definitely not too sweet nor did I have any trouble drinking it. A lot of strange flavors going on though, with some leafiness, mustiness and earthiness in particular. Cherry-vanilla notes seem the most enjoyable, and the carbonation was rather tight, giving it a zesty texture as it slides down. Strange beer and quite different from the bottled version.

Cask at GBBF 2006. A dark brown beer with a huge brown head. The aroma is spicy malty - a bit weird spicyness. The flavor is sweet malty again with the weird spicyness, leading to a dry bitter and woody end.

Deep red brown, with a touch of malt in aroma, smooth creamy chocolaty with littlebitter linger. TK 2 Mathers West End Edinburgh ... Brown, light malt ... smooth chocolate malt ... lots of sweet roast malt ... creamy ... buildin bitter linger ... 2.8->3.7oak cask ... deep red brown ... thin tan head ... very berry fruity nose ... dark sweet toffee malts ... little medicinal ... soft fruits ... ok 3.6 Cask at the Paisley beer festival 2017.... Dark brown.. M thin tan lacing.. Soft sweet berries woody toffee malts nose... Dark sweet chocolate roast malts.. Rich rounded cherry chocolate roast malts. 4.0

Cask Near-black brown ale, B.D."H.". A bit sulphury nose, and malt colouring. Rest are probably less coloured malts. Dry, hayish malt nose, with some completely fermented-out molasses or other sugar. Some esters, and dry, tannine-like flavours, especially on the lingual surfaces of the incisors. Medium to will-bodied, dry-out effect (tannines). Pretty complex beer, but just not uplifting enough to be really great.

Cask condition, handpull at Simple Simon’s, Canterbury. Very dark ruby, no head. Is it supposed to be this sour? The it warms up and this lovely dark fruit flavour comes out. Not huge hop, some dryness on end. Some liquorice and a bit of roasted malt with choc and coffee, but the dark fruits dominate.

(Cask at GBBF, London, 2 Aug) Colour is dark brown with ruby notes, firm off-white head. Nose is malty with dried fruit (raisins, prunes), caramel and a hint of port wine. Taste is fruity and malty with dried fruit (raisins, apricots, prunes) , sweet liquorice, caramel and an evident port character. Balanced sweetness throughout. Moderately bitter finish with some chocolate notes. Very nice and warming.