Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Pours black with a small lasting head.Nose shows lots of chocolate, quite creamy. Pretty nice! Fair bit of roasted malt too.Some story with the flavours but more centred towards the roasted malt.Too much carbonation.Pretty simple but still enjoyable.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6
Pours amber with a lasting white head.Nose shows fruity hops and sweet malt in moderate amounts. Some cookie dough characters also show through.Flavours perfectly mirror aromas and finish with a mild but well balanced bitterness.Carbonation is mild, which suits the beers.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 3 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 4
Pours gold with a small head.nose shows dirty stale malt and little else. Some mild lemony hops are just noticeable. Quite faint.Flavours inlcude more sweet malt along with lemon and banana, but swiftly goes downhill with a stale, watery, solvent-like and only slightly bitter finish.Good moderately high carbonation though!
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 5.5
Pours pale amber with a rapidly fading suddy head.Nose shows lemon and very faint floral notes with some weak sweet malt hiding underneath. Very faint.Flavours redeem the beer, plenty of nutty malt with faint floral hops creating a little refreshment.Very watery, very low carbonation.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
From a 330ml bottle on 10/7/2010. Comes in a cool shaped bottle, with the label indicating it’s 8.3% rather than 8.5%. This is actually a pretty decent crack at a Belgian strong ale, if not quite as convincing as the genuine article. Has a nice stong, distinctive spicy, fruity aroma. Flavour wise, it tastes of sweet dried fruits, roasted malt, burnt sugar, and alcohol.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
750ml bottle. Largely clear gold, small white head. Fine bead. Gentle aromas of earthy yeast and citrus zest with some leather. Taste is light and sweet with just touches of spice (allspice) and sourness. Easygoing with hints of depth is what I like about this sort of beer and this works pretty well.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
This one is Saison 2009 - I thought about adding it separately but decided against it. 750ml bottle. Attempts to climb out of the bottle when opened. Pours cloudy amber with a large white head. Aroma of yeast, pineapple, pears and hard spices. Light body at the top of the bottle - second half has a little sediment and is more luscious. Taste has some orange sweetness and sourness with peaches and mild clove/ white pepper spiciness. There’s a strange metallic quality too that’s not great. Another pretty good local stab at this style.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Pours copper with a lovely creamy beige head. Lots of tiny bubbles. Smells of toffee, balsamic vinegar, orchards and the barnyard. Tastes sweet with a real hard toffee character. There are candy-shop spices too - ginger, mace, cinnamon, anise. Enough sourness to balance. I guess this is from 2008, but it’s hard to tell. A pleasant surprise.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
From a 330ml bottle on 18/3/2010. The label on my bottle makes no ’reference to ’Prickly Moses’. Not quite sure what to make of this one. It has a distinct and quite nice grassy aroma but tastes a little strange, as the grassiness comes out in the flavour. It’s not particularly sweet and has a modest bitter kick, which borders on the sour side. An unusual lager which doesn’t really come together.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 3 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6
Pours very dark brown with no head. Odd aroma of fruit, soy sauce and dark sugars. Taste has some roasty bitterness and cold coffee. Rather watery. Lacks presence. Tastes more like a schwartzbier than a stout.