Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Half pint, cask ale, shared with Finn at Sir John Oldcastle. Wetherspoon Beer Festival, March 24. A beige, bubbly head over a deep dark mahogany coloured body, dotted spots on the glassware. Roasted chocolate malts on the nose, inviting. Sweet chocolate malty flavours, hints of liquorice and a backdrop of coffee hints towards a lightly roasted ending, mid-sweet. Like it. (London, 16.03.2024).

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Cask @ Regal Moon, Rochdale. Clear mahogany coloured ale with a thick creamy head. Has light liquorice notes in both aroma and taste, but no real chocolate flavours as suggested in its notes.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Cask at Archibald Simpsons. It pours clear deep brown with a thick, fluffy khaki head. The aroma is soft, sweet, plenty of milk chocolate, maltesers, malted milk, mellow roast and light caramel. The taste is firmly dry, bitter, charred, toasty malt, then comes quite a sweet chocolate character, milk chocolate made with veg oil, bitter coffee grounds, nuttiness and damp earth with a bitter, almost spicy chocolate finish. Average body and moderate, fluffy cask carbonation. Not sure he balance is quite there. Some ok elements to it.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Delt med Rune. Wetherspoonsfestival -24. Ultramørkebrun. Skumring med litt farge. Litt lacing. Forsiktig sjokoladearoma. Smaken melkesjokolade. Lett røstet avslutning. Grei. Ikke for søt.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

13th March 2024
Cask at the Penderals Oak. Clear deep red brown beer, good bubbly tan head. Smooth palate, airy and mildly dry, reasonable fine carbonation. Fluffy dark malts, pretty light but doing a very good job of bringing the chocolate. Like licking the cocoa dusting off of nice truffle, you get the cocoa but also a fair amount of the good stuff underneath. Polaris hops! Not seen these for years. To be Frank, still not sure I have! Just a very mellow pine and modest berry fruits. Airy and semi dry finish. Nice beer, very quaffable.

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

Cask at the Hope Tap (JDW), Reading. Brown with a beige head. Chocolate syrup and a little tobacco. Some blackcurrant. It's a little thin and watery for the strength. OK-ish I guess. I always think that Banks are one of the better Wetherspoons Collab breweries (along with Adnams), but this is not up to some of their previous efforts.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Third of a pint, hand-pulled in my local Spoons on 10th March 2024. Beige head of a mahogany brown body. Someone forgot to put any chocolate malts in my third because I really struggled to find any traces of it in the aroma and taste. I found this bland and uninteresting compared to what others have written.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Cask at Briar Rose, Birmingham. Pours a pretty dark reddish-brown with a small cream head and good lacing. There’s a strong chocolate aroma to this beer plus hints of cocoa and coffee. Chocolate again in the mouth, with plenty of dark fruits and roasted malts too. It’s slightly sweet and quite juicy with liquorice and hints of ginger coming through later leading to a quite spicy finish. This is really nice – beer of the festival so far.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

On cask. Appearance - clear dark amber with a thin beige head. Nose - coffee and chocolate but still citrus lurking. Taste - more of the same. Palate - light bodied, roasty and fruity. Lightly dry finish. Overall - decent.