Super dark brown coloured body with a thick, but fairly fast-dying light brown head that doesn't leave any sort of lace at all on top, with the body being about 80 per cent opaque. Aroma of roasted malt, anise, licorice, deep chocolate and some lactose notes with a heavy hand of caramelised sugar as well, but the bitterness from the spice and roasted malt is strongest here. Medium-bodied; Rich chocolate and earthy malts dominate up front with a big hit of the lactose, cream and nutty flavours from the malt and residual sugars here, with a bigger finish from the bitterness and grain and still a good punch from the star anise and the yeast here. Aftertaste shows a lot of character, especially from the lactose, creamy and earthy side of things with a touch of sweetness still here, but the robust and relatively pungent qualities of the malt are strongest. Overall, a pretty strong and earthy, malty, licoricey and sweet, lactosey beer that has some nice chocolate notes but stronger malt notes that hit nicely for the style and the brewery and are about what I expected from this one! I sampled this sixteen ounce, pint-sized can, purchased from Total Wine in Cary (Crossroads Boulevard), North Carolina on 30-May-2021 for US$3,99 sampled at my house here in Washington on 13-December-2021 for Beer #12 of my 2021 Advent Calendar.