Bottle shared in London - cheers! Pours clear brown with a frothy tan head. The nose has spices and pine, mellow roast, earth. Medium sweet flavour with toasted brown bread, chocolate, dried fruits, pine, orange. Medium bodie ld with average carbonation. Finishes with pine, light cocoa, rindy citrus. Good stuff.

Bottle split at Happy New Years L42 Shim Sham, ta Stevoj for the trade, 12/01/17. Light black with a decent tan cap. Nose is light smoke, pine, charr, toffee, chocolate, pine. Taste comprises light roast, spice, charr, cocoa rub, toffee fudge, light pine tingle. Medium bodied, fine carbonation, semi drying close with an earthy hop scrub up. Decent well balanced CDA.

Poured into a becher pint glass, the appearance was a dark brown close to black color with an off white thick foamy head that dissipates at a decent pace. Thick foamy clingy lacing spreads all around the glass.
The aroma takes on the sweet juniper berries but extracts the bitterness nicely out of those berries. Spruce is there showing some balancing sweet to bitter hoppiness. Good use of chocolate malts. Some coffee beans.
The flavor balances very nicely between the bitterness and the sweet of the juniper, the spruce and the coffee beans. Chocolate malts slide a bit further back. Dark fruity berry (slightly acidic). And then there’s the dark fruity aftertaste with a quick semi-slick sort of sweet to bitter finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a fair sipping quality about it. Mild carbonation hits nicely.
Overall, nice American Black Ale that I could see coming back to. A little bit of a dark acidic fruitiness I can dig for it’s creativity.

Keg at Draft Taproom, 12/21/16. Clear dark brown with a red tint. Large creamy tan head,good retention. Aroma of roasted malt, chocolate, pine, resin. The taste is roasted malts, chocolate, pine, peppers. Thin-medium bodied, lingering bitterness.

Pour is a almost black with a small white head. Aroma is both piney hop and roasted malt. Flavor is a decent roasted malt with a little char left on the tongue. Not a huge hop presence but there is some bitterness there. Definitely more of a porter aspect rather than a black IPA but this is still a flavorful beer, I just wish there was more of a outstanding hop presence.

Bottle from Brewers Haven. Dark almost black pour, fluffy, rocky beige head. After this glorious start, the rest is just average. Aroma is slightly hoppy and features some of the roast grains. Taste is a mix of the malts and hops, but ends up kind of soapy.

On tap Black with a soapy tan head nice balance of piney hop flavors and moderate roastiness. Medium body and pretty good bitterness. Not very aggressive but a good CDA