Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Bottle. Appearance- black, with a slight brown tinge when held to the light. Light brown head of one finger which persists. Aroma- vanilla, milk chocolate, cocoa, liquorice hints, a bit of coffee. Taste- chocolate, some dark fruits in the background, blackjack sweets, vanilla, cocoa bitterness, fudge, hints of almond. Chocolatey finish. Quite good.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
330ml bottle. Pours dark brown with creamy head. Milky liquorice aroma, taste is sweet molasses, milk chocolate, vanilla, dark fruits & bitter coffee. Nice.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
500ml bottle. Minimally cloudy, orangey golden colour with average to huge, frothy, fairly lasting, minimally lacing, barely white head. Cautious fruity hoppy aroma, subtle hints of peach, a touch of gooseberry, caramel malty background lends sweet-ish fruitiness support. Taste is bitter hoppy with a mineral touch, hints of gooseberry, a touch of bitter orange, slightly biscuity caramel malty basis. Presumably matching the historic IPA flavour profile, definitely making me rebellious concerning the Bitter rubric. If we divide Session IPAs from regular IPAs (and APAs), I have certain difficulties with the concordance of English IPAs and Bitters.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
RE-RATE Pours dark, good tan head. Aroma is sumptuous vanilla cocoa. Taste is smooth with rich dark chocolate, smooth vanilla, low bitterness. Paired well with Belgian chocolate. Remarkable. 330ml bottle drunk at home, three days before the Best Before date. Starts promisingly enough with a chocolate / vanilla sponge aroma but taste presents a distinct sour vinegar flavour. Clearly infected. Shame as I was looking forward to this.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
500ml bottle @ the 5th Shrewsbury Bottle share May 14, courtesy of myself. Nice warming toffee malt aroma, continuing to the taste with a strange distant sourish tang and some subtle wine notes. Didn’t mind this one.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
500ml Bottle conditioned on 19th May 2014 at a Shrewsbury Bottle Swap, cheers Mat. Malt lead to the nose of this fairly dark brew, lively pour with a good head. The maltiness in the mouth gives way to a dry, bitter finish which I didn’t really take too. I prefered the old 80 Shilling beers I used to drink up in Morayshire in the 1980’s to be honest, they were creamier and tastier, this lacked true body depth.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
500ml bottle courtesy of Luc. Sweet, malty and tasty. A refreshing, satisfying bitter.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6
Shared bottle at the fourth Shrewsbury bottle swap on 28th April 2014. I got a quarter of the 500ml. Cloudy amber body that had plenty of life, almost fizzy actually. Fruity aroma, a veritable basket of different fruits, some sweet, some citrusy sour, the taste mirrored the smells a real fruit bowl of a flavour. Pity about the over carbonation, a smoother, creamier body would have been nicer. Overall a semi-sweet fruity brew with enough bitterness to just about make it interesting.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Cask at the Hare and Billet, Blackheath. Dark brown pour with a beige head. Raisin, roasted malt and chocolate aroma. Cremé caramel and raisin flavour. Quite dry. Not bad.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 5.5
21st April 2014
Almost opaque dark brown beer, small pale tan head. Palate is light and mildly crisp, semi dry. Mild dark malts, tangy. The tang has traces of dark fruits and vanilla. Finishes light and semi dry, a bit one dimensional, but fine.