9th July 2008. BBE of Nov 2006! Quite a soft porter. The port doesn’t really present itself other than possibly being responsible for the pronounced fruity tone. Not too dry.

[500ml bottle from The Real Ale Shop, Priory Farm, Wrentham, Suffolk] Pours deep crimson/black, with no head at all. Big lumps of sediment at bottom. Initially tastes weak and watery before a slight chocolate flavour comes through, followed by a big wallop of damsons and sloes. The sourness of the damsons dominates unpleasantly mid-drink before the intense dryness of the sloes comes through. The aftertaste develops through burnt woody notes into a slightly smokey dryness. In fact dryness in the dominant characteristic. Despite this, I’d agree with others who have said that this should posssibly be classified as a mild rather than a porter. However, despite being quite an interesting and unusual mild I wouldn’t number it amongst my favourites. Still a decent beer though - give it a go if you fancy something different.

Cask gravity Reading BF 06. Black beer with disappearing beige head. Bit of a thin porter, I certainly didn’t get any port out of it. Some nice tarryness, just not very much else