Bottle from blankboy. Deep brown opaque body, thin-medium tan head. Chocolatey, toasty aroma with touches of spice. Cinnamon is more pronounced in the flavor than in the nose. Otherwise a roasty, chocolatey porter, but leans towards a spice beer due to the potent cinnamon. Medium-bodied with a lingering bitter finish. Not bad, but the porter is of average complexity minus the cinnamon.

Bottle: Poured a black color porter with small foamy dark brown head with good retention. Aroma of roasted malt with some light cinnamon. Taste is quite rich with a nice dose of roasted malt and some spices, which definitely includes cinnamon. Notes of chocolate and coffee are identifiable but a more important presence would have been nice. Body is above average.

2003 Vintage:
Dark brown in colour with a nice lighter brown head. Although, when held up to the light, the beer looks like a very strong violet colour-dark ruby highlights dominate the appearance. Aroma of roasted malt, coffee, slight vanilla and sour lactic quality. Medium to Light-bodied; Strong bittering malt with large cofee overtones. Some canella is present, but not much. A bit of the sour quality arises in the taste, but pretty much a straight malt-shot. Aftertaste bittered from the coffee and the roasted malt, but nice for the style. Overall, a good spiced porter, definately good to try! Many thanks to Jeremy (jercraigs) for hand-delivering this twelve ounce bottle! I sampled this beer on 07-December-2003.

Dark brown. Medium to full bodied, nutty, dry, big roasty flavour. .........

Dark brown; Aroma of dark chocolate, hazelnuts, rich coffee; the palate combines rich cappucino with pralines, leaf hops, a hint of cinnamon and an old woodiness that reminded me of those dilapidated wooden fences you see around farmer's fields. The finish is long, roasty and quite dry (I think I would have preferred the finish to be a little sweeter myself). All in all, an impressive seasonal offereing, and a good replacement for the departed Taylor & Bate Porter (RIP).