Tap at KBH Festival, 2009. Pours a pitch black with a creamy brown head. Roast, bitter coffee, chocolate, hops. Heavy all around with a superb balance. Slick, vinous, oily , smooth and full bodied. Amazing.

Entered to celebrate my rating number 12,100. Draft. A pitch black beer with a slight brown shine along the bottom of the glass under a thin lazing brown head. The aroma is sweet with notes of alcohol, wood, sherry, roasted malt, and soy sauce, as well as lighter notes of dark bitter chocolate. The flavor is very sweet with strong notes of roasted malt, bitter chocolate, prunes, over ripe fruits, and wood, as well as medium notes of soy sauce, brown sugar, and alcohol, that tickles the tongue and palate, and burns lightly in the top of the throat. The finish is very bitter, both from the hops and the roasted malt. Nice one.

draft at NB appears pitch dark, with a small fine brown head. aroma is sweet, with tones of roasted stuff, chocolate, coffee, vanilla, loads of other aromas i can’t take apart. very complex and seems to be quite balanced too. 7 mouthfeel is THICK. this can be eaten as a dessert with a spoon. great palate. flavor starts out well balanced mild, but as the brew gets farther back in the mouth you get an assault of flavors and bitterness, coffee, roasted stuff, dark chocolate. aftertaste lingers for very long, and gains strength even after you’ve finished the sample. this is quite extreme. i can’t wait to find out how the barrelled versions will taste.

From tap at the brewpub. Pours deep dark brown to black with a huge, creamy and dense dark chocolate brown head. Smooth roasted malt aroma, chocolate and bit of marmelade hoppy accents. Minor alcohol presence in the nose too, becomes more apparent as the beer heats up. Smooth and creamy mouthfeel, thick and fullbodied. Light acidic roasted malt flavour initially. Solid roasted malt and chocolate following with a nice hoppy fruity accent and solid bitterness into the finish. Has a mild sweetness to just balance the bitterness and solid rosted malt flavours. Smooth finish with a slowly building hardroasted and lasting acidity. In addition there is a slowly building dextrose feeling yet with the bitterness as a solid counterbalance. Lasting malty and chocolate finish that just keeps lingering for eternity. Very far finish has a light fruity hops accent which kept growing in the minutes following finishing the beer. Full of layers and complexity yet not impossible to approach.