Black Beauty

Cask@GBBF2010. Deep reddish brown colour with small off-white/beige head. Aroma is roasted malts, some chocolate and coffee. Also mild ashy notes. Flavour is caramel, roasted malts some ashes and mild coffeeish notes. Mild bitterness in the finish. Gentle and smooth.

Cask at GBBF ’10. Black pour, beige head. Caramel, coffee, chocolate aromas. Heavy coffee flavours with a smattering of chocolate. Slightly bitter.

Cask. Pours a cloudy opaque dark brown with an orange hue and a small beige head. Lightly nutty and roasted nose. Light body, flat, roasted nutty accents and even roast all through the finish. Has a vague underlying tartness. Not much of a Porter. 200110

Bottle. Black beer with a strong head. The aroma is lightly bitter and lightly roasted, and the flavour is lightly roasted and bitter. Overall an average roasted bitter.

[i] Cask at Merton Summer Festival, September 2004 [/i] Going back through my travel log and Merton Beer Festival information tonight and picking up those that had escaped. Never one of my favourite Vale beers but nonetheless it’s fine enough. Pours pretty much black with little head to speak of. Dry roasted malty taste but a bit too thin and watery for me to really get much from. [i] [b] Had this again at the Nut Tree, Murcott, Oxon, 09-03-08 [/i] [/b] This tasted a much better and more rounded beer than I’d had before, it’s still quite subtle and at times a bit thin but there were some really nice well done roasted flavours going on here and nice coffee and cocoa flavours to balance things out score on this occasion is [i] [b] 3.3 [/i] [/b] --- Beer merged from original tick of Black Beauty Vanilla Porter on 01 Dec 2011 at 00:46 - Score: Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7. Original review text: Cask,handpump at The Hop Pole, Aylesbury, Bucks Pours black with light beige creamy head, ruby glints. Touch roasty but with big vanilla flavours, bit creamy, dry at end, main thoughts are roasty and creamy. An interesting take on and also slight improvement on what was already a decent beer. A6 A4 T7 P3 Ov14 3.4

Cask @ Lamb & Flag, Oxford. Pours a black color with an off-white head. Fruity malty and slightly roasted aroma. Sweet roasted malty and fruity flavor with some hints of coffee and chocolate. Roasted malty finish with some hints of chocolate in the aftertaste.

Cask gravity at Reading BF 06. Black colour, very thin head. Good porter, lots of dark roast malts. This I like. Juicy, sour, but crisp and agile too.

[Cask at Volunteers Arms at GBBF 2004] An opaque brown beer with a disappearing light brown head. The aroma is sweet roasted and malty, and so is the flavor.