Bottle. Dark brown color, malt, hints of caramel, roast and ash in the aroma. Malty sweet caramelly soft roasty, ashy flavor. Sticky, just enough roast to be drinkable.

Bottle @ home. Nice red brown to brown color with a deep dark red glare coming through when held into the light, full sized beige to light brown colored head that lasts for quite a long time. Aroma is malts, caramel, brown malts, lightly iron. Taste malts, brown malts, iron more clearly now, malt bitter finish. Not your typical sweet stout imo, in fact I wouldn’t say it is one. Oh well.

Craft beer from southern France, bottle from Bier en Plezier in Almere, already two months over its best before date now (and bought last month with a discount because of this). Creamy, fairly thick, regular, pale yellowish beige head, hazy dark bronze robe with burgundy hue, blackish but still more or less translucent. Not unpleasant aroma of nut shells, candied fig, fresh blackcurrant or blackberry, orange peel, ’natural’ iron, coffee grounds, cocoa powder, brownies, toasted bread, cinnamon, pear, damp forest floor, cardboard, blue grape, dust. Sourishness (blackberry) and sweetishness (raisin, pear) in the mouth, the latter less outspoken than the first but both subdued, umami accent, spritzy carbonation numbing the tongue a bit at first but calming down after a while, initial basic and roasted barley sourishness continues while a nutty, toasted, pleasantly bittersweet malt body builds up, coffeeish touch in the finish providing roasted bitterness, traces of caramel and toffee as well, peppery hop accent in the finish adds spicy, leafy and floral bitterness and ensures enough dryness against the malt sweetness; I believe I can feel a sign of warming alcohol as well, but nothing disturbing. Coffee grounds aroma lingers retronasally. Nothing too spectacular, but even past its recommended period of consumption, still a unexpectedly nice beer, which finds good balance of sour, sweet and bitter. In terms of style, I’d say this is more a porter than a stout, with certain Belgian influences but still coming across as Anglo-Saxon. Enjoyed this.

Opaque deep brown colour with red hue, medium-sized frothy tan head, diminishing slowly, light lacing. Aroma is roasted malts, coffee, dark chocolate, brown sugar, cloves. Taste is medium sweet and bitter, coffee, chocolate. Light to medium body, watery to oily texture, soft carbonation, malty aftertaste, chocolate and light spicy notes in the finish. Overall it lacks some body and depth but a good effort.