Bottle at Craft Beer Clerkenwell thanks to Bob, 09/03/13. Chestnut brown with a big beige head that retains well. Nose is caramel, toffee, light spice, boozey. Taste follows, dark fruits, booze. Medium bodied, moderate carbonation. Decent enough fayre!

Bottle shared at Craft. Thanks to Bob. Pours cloudy brown with a thick, brian cream head. Some tangy fruits in the nose. Medium sweet flavor, lots of grape and other sweet berries, mellow tang. Full bodied with fine carbonation. Tangy finish, some lively carbonation, tangy berries. Decent, somewhat heavy.

500ml Brown bottle, best before Apr 2012, poured slowly (it’s bottle conditioned) into an Abbot Ale glass tankard in Oct 2011. What a beauty, deep, deep black/dark brown body, only see the ruby red hue it has when held up to a powerful light. The deep rich creamy head of tanned foam sits on top like a huge crown, wonderful to look at. The nose is somewhat subdued at first, but then as it warmed in the tankard I found the smell of a malty fruitcake which has been slightly over cooked and begining to burn. Well that is how I’d can best describe it. The taste wasn’t as burnt, roasted, smooth or rich as the smell suggested, it wasn’t creamy as the head suggested either. It was however heavy in body and certainly warming my insides as I quaffed it at too fast a pace. Hints of ginger seem to make it appear almost hot, but a caramel sweetness calmed it all down a little: interesting and certainly different. The mouth drying brought a hop bitterness and another dimension into the equation. Liquorice flavours appeared once the mouth had dried completely, again adding to the complexity of the tasting. Not sure if my bottle was in good order, but it was a roller coaster of a beer and I’d love another one to see if mine was as it should have been: this review stands until then!

500ml bottle. Pours an amber brown with a large head. Aroma is sour vinegar and lambic like. Taste is a bit of sour vinegar and funk throughout with caramel on the finish.

Cask-conditioned at the Three Tuns Beer Festival, Bristol 2/07/10. Dark, opaque brown with a decent tan head. Big malty aroma of bread pudding, nuts, dark fruits and liquorice with a hint of spice. Sweet flavour with plenty of ginger cake, more spices, a touch of fruit and nut and a gently bitter finish. Very enjoyable.

Cask, handpump at a mightily impressive just £2.80 a pint at The Plough, Worcester, 12-11-09 Pours mahogany with off white rim of small bubbles. Sticky aroma of dark fruits, dates and the like, but more so of black treacle. The aroma transferred into the mouth with dark sticky fruit’s, treacle, dates etc all there, its quite substantial in the flavour department and there is also a very slight fizzy sourness in the mouth. Tasty stuff. A7 A3 F7 P4 Ov14 3.5 Had this again on cask, gravity at the Festival bar Shrewsbury Folk Festival 29.08.10 Poured dark, dark brown with off-white small head. Big heavy beer with plenty of sticky toffee pudding, dark molassess and sticky fruits, still lovely. A6 A4 T8 P4 Ov14 3.6