8.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 9
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Pours dark brown with a large, lasting head.Nose shows lots of tropical fruit and rich malt. Very syrupy smelling, incredibly tempting.Similar flavours, with lots of crystal malt sweetness but also showing lots of tropical fruity hops. Big papaya, lychee and resinous hop notes. Amazing malt character too.Nice syrupy body, could use a little more carbonation though.
Tried
on 02 Sep 2012
at 01:15
7.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Volcanic opening.Pours pitch black with a large, dark tan head.Nose shows hefty coffee, rich roasted malt and oatmeal. Very tempting!Similar flavours: rich roasted malt characters, espresso and earthy sweet coffee. A nice amount of underlying sweetness too.Great creamy carbonation.Amazing how much roasted complexity while keeping things approachable. Ridiculously drinkable.
Tried
from Can
on 28 Aug 2012
at 01:03
7.3/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle, 11C. Rose gold with an off-white head that settles to a good coat. High bead. Aroma of light caramel, grapes, oranges, spices. Sweet with sugary dough, apricots, grapes, pepper, hints of spices. Dries out quite nicely at the end with spices and firmish bitterness. Hides the alcohol pretty well. Good balance.
Tried
from Bottle
on 22 Aug 2012
at 05:03
7.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 9
Texture 4
Overall 8
From a 330ml bottle on 19/8/2012. Pours a slightly cloudy dark golden with a medium, quite fluffy head. Has a slightly sharp fruity, yeast aroma typical of Belgian ales. Taste wise, it very flavoursome and quite intense with lots of sweet fruit (particularly orange and apricot, and a little peach) and some distinct spice notes, and bittering fruit peel, and a nice dash of hops at the end. This is a lovely festive ale, slightly let down by HopDog’s continued propensity to over-carbonate their brews. That said, it’s great to see an Aussie brewer who is clearly focused on making unusual, challenging and complex stuff.
Tried
from Bottle
on 18 Aug 2012
at 22:05
5.9/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 4
Overall 5.5
Pours dark amber with a small head.Nose shows restrained (for an IPA) hops, mainly spicy and grassy. A touch of spicy rye surfaces too.Very aggressive flavours, with a powerful bitterness dominating throughout. Very sharp with lots of pine. Hardly any malt to balance things out. Somewhat one-dimensional.Hits the IPA mark in terms of bitterness, but not particularly interesting. Comes off as sharp and abrasive.
Tried
on 23 Jul 2012
at 23:43
7.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 4
Overall 8
From a 330ml bottle on 9/7/2012. Pours a cloudy dark golden with a tiny thin head. Has a huge smoky bacony aroma (like sticking your face in a sizzling frying pan). Flavour wise, there’s heaps more smoky bacon, along with some tangy citrus notes, and a decent dose of bittering hops. The carbonation is a little over the top but this is otherwise a very interesting, flavoursome smoked ale. Another good’n from HopDog.
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 Jul 2012
at 03:22
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 4
Overall 7
Pours black with ruby highlights and a massive, growing head.Aroma include spicy phenols, faint dried figs, spciy hops, soft light fruity esters and gentle roasted malt.Roasted malt and soft figs are the main flavours, although there’s also some soft, spicy hops.Ridiculously over-carbonated.
Tried
on 09 Jul 2012
at 01:48
7.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle, 11C. Clear dark brown with an inch of beige head. Aroma of toffee, brown sugar, figs, dough, spices. 7- 8 Quite full bodied. Taste is fairly sweet with figs and ripe plums, dough, chocolate. All cleaned up at the end which is drying and subtly spiced and bitter. Currently under "Brown Ale" which doesn’t seem right. Very nice beer.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Jul 2012
at 06:23
7.3/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 8
Bottle, slight gusher. 14C. Black with a large tan head that fades to a good coat. Coffee and chocolate aroma with some pine. Oily mouthfeel. Woah, caffeine! Taste is barely sweet, but there’s some fudginess to the chocolate. Lots of coffee. Firm bitterness means that the astringency of the coffee doesn’t quite dominate.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Jun 2012
at 05:06
6.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 4
Overall 7
Bottle. Hazy amber with a large, loose white head that collapses. Aroma of grapefruit, passionfruit, nectarines. Taste is fairly bitter with some rye breadiness and spices as well. Some peach and pepper, but dominated by grapefruit. The hop and malt/rye flavours don’t seem to complement each other all that well and it comes across as tasty but a bit rough and disjointed.
Tried
from Bottle
on 31 May 2012
at 04:55