Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Super deep and opaque dark brown coloured body with an almost non-existent off-white head that fades very quickly and leaves nothing up top. Aroma of roasted malt, figs, earth, nuts, grain and some deep caramelised sugar notes with only a touch of licorice and bitterness poking through the nose - this is mainly sweet and subtle, surprisingly. Full-bodied; Rich earthy and super sweet flavours of figs, plums, grain and candy come through with a toffee-like flavour towards the end with some banana and yeastie esters that come through on the finish with a subtle pungency of molasses and even maple syrup. Aftertaste is rich and pungent with a great balance of sugars, malt and graininess with a ton of complexity from the sugars, with a soft dose of lactose near the end, but the figs and dates really show strong here. Overall, a nice and quite elegant beer with tons of sugars that sort of hide the alcohol and pungency here, but this is deep, robust and full-of-flavour while being fairly easy-drinking, at least for the style. Great to try fresh on tap at the brewpub here! I sampled this 33cL pour on draught at Black Hammer Brewpub in San Francisco (SoMa), California on 08-March-2022 for US$8,00.