Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Blend of some kind of sherry barrel aged old ale with cocoa nib flavoured milk stout, issued for some or other local festival in the Netherlands (before the Covid-19 pandemic), made only in very small quantities as a one-off, outside of Dot's cellar series - thanks to the brewery for passing me that information, as there was no way to find out on the bottle itself: came from a 75 cl bottle with no official label, just the brewery’s name and a ‘stain’ of lilac colour in the middle for in-brewery identification. Thanks to Craftmember for sharing this apparent rarity. Mousy, yellowish pale beige, opening and eventually dissolving head, blackish robe but still largely translucent, hazy mahogany coloured (indeed betraying its old ale component and not being one hundred percent stout). Lovely bouquet of brown sugar melting on hot pancakes, hazelnut paste, Belgian chocolates, almond, brown rum, toffee, old brownies, candied cherries, tawny port, chestnut, latté macchiato, brown bread dough, wood glue. Sweet onset though not cloying, impressions of fig jam, candied dates and cherries, blackberry coulis; soft sourish undertone providing subtle yet important balance against the sweetness. Softish carb, slight minerality here and there, soft and full, velvety mouthfeel; thick toffeeish and milk-chocolatey malt middle, pecan-nutty and bready at its edges, with a roasty coffeeish touch – that takes on a kind of latté-like effect in combination with the hazelnut and sugary sweetness. Spicy aspects in the finish (clove, liquorice) but not overpowering, while a port- and bourbon-like alcohol glow develops, becoming perhaps a tad strong in the end, but not so much as to overrule the soft sweetness of this stout, a sweetness which indeed does seem to stick a bit in the very end. Warming, soothing, sweet and boozy winter beer with gentle, bit desserty character, but not descending into pastry stout territory; blend of sweet stout and old ale best describes it indeed, and a very good one at that, worthy of its relatively hefty price tag. Nice and totally unexpected.