Bottle from the sadly now closed Worldwide Alcohol, Chelmsford. Bottle as Night Train. Pours very dark brown with a lasting beige head. Aroma of milk chocolate, roasted coffee, malt, dark fruits, caramel, wood, molasses and hint of rum. Medium plus sweetness, medium roasted bitterness. full bodied, slick texture, very soft carbonation. Very good.

Draught @ BeerTemple, Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 250, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1012 RR. [ As O'so Hopdinger Pale Ale ].Clear medium yellow amber colour with a average, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, sweet malt, pale malt, light caramel. Flavor is moderate sweet and light to moderate bitter with a long duration, sweet malt, cookie, hop bitter - metalic, dry. Body is medium, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft. [20170921] 7-3-7-3-13

Bottle 355ml @ My parent's place
Pours hazy golden with a white head. Aroma has notes of malt, citrus, grapefruit and pine. Taste is light to medium sweet and medium to heavy bitter with a long citrus, grapefruit and piney finish. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. Seems old but still quite nice.

0,355 flaske fra Høkeren, på hytta nov-17: klar dyp gulden med tett beige skum som varer. Intens aroma og smak preget av harpiks/furunål/kvae i en solid maltkropp. Grapefrukt og urter i avslutninge. Kofferten er pakket, lejligheden ryddet og støvsugd, nå er det bare å bevege seg i reting av bussen.

Bottle @ Home Pours clear golden with a white head. Aroma of wheat, light sourness, little salt, little tart fruit. Flavor is light sweet, wheat, light salty, tart fruit, citrus, lemon. Thin to medium body, average to lively carbonation, light acidic finish. 011117

Bottle. Creamy white good mostly lasting head. Dark yellow colour. Light malty and heavy hoppy aroma. Heavy bitter wonderful flavor. Long heavy bitter finish. Creamy palate. Excellent.

American robust porter from a craft brewery in Wisconsin "fighting against boring beer", unknown to me until today. Medium thick, 'membranously' lacing, moussy and creamy, pale greyish beige, stable head, slowly showing a few 'holes' here and there minutes after pouring but in all very well-retaining, over a clear, utterly dark burgundy brown beer - in fact as good as black, but still with a ruby red hue visible under bright light. Aroma of a lot of cold espresso and coffee grounds, liquorice, warm game stock, something sweaty (worn-out leather jacket, even actual sourish stale sweat), walnuts, overripe and mushy black olives, burnt toast, toffee, chestnut, dates, fried black trumpet mushrooms and fried black pudding, melting butterscotch, hints of iron-like clotted blood, cold tomato soup, acorn shells, wet dog, bayleaf. Only restrained 'dried peach'- and vaguely fig-like sweetishness in the onset, clean, with the beefy and mushroom-ish umami factor (already apparent in the nose) coming up quite explicitly, more so than any sweetness really, with that typical roasted barley sourishness running beneath it; carbonation remains very soft, mouthfeel is oily and a bit greasy, of a thickness perhaps just a bit below what one would expect from a 7% ABV porter. Hard butterscotch-like maltiness does provide a bit more sweetness in the middle, quickly turning very (wal-)nutty and, also quickly following, roasted bitter, with a bitter black coffee-like effect in the end, mouth-filling and eventually supported by a generously spicy 'American'-dosed hop bitterness, wiping out whatever little sweetness that was there in the first place; a notably metallic 'feeling' lingers at the edges. The roasted bitterness and the outspoken umami flavours combined lend the whole a somewhat smoky effect, though this is definitely not a smoked porter; alcohol provides a subtle warmth after swallowing but does not become too explicit at all. Bitter toasty and roasted maltiness dominates in the end, with a softening nutty core and a thin liquorice-like effect at its sides. Your basic modern-era 'Americanized' robust porter, perhaps already a bit outdated in this day and age, a bit reminiscent of pioneering beers like Sierra Nevada Porter or Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, yet distinctive in its very strong beef broth-like meaty umami profile, perhaps a tad too strong for its own good; some vague off-flavours as well. And very roasted bitter of course, to the extent that it could just as easily be sold as a stout (certainly here in old Europe), but this rather pointless discussion has been done to death by now so let's not go into that here. Whatever the case: nothing overly exceptional within the rich American craft beer context, but well-functioning and satisfying enough, I can imagine myself using this gastronomically as an ingredient in a gravy to serve with venison, for example - and in that sense, this beer fits this time of the year perfectly, which probably influences my score positively. I can imagine this performing well under bourbon barrel aging, as apparently there are a lot of variations made of it having undergone that tried-and-tested treatment.

Bottle. Creamy white good mostly lasting head. Yellow colour. Light malty and hopy moldy salty aroma. Light bitter very acetic flavor. Short light bitter sour finish. Oily palate.

Black with a beige head. Rich chocolate, sweet, molasses, vanilla, light roasted coffee, a bit of earth. Full bodied. Endless sweet and lightly bitter finish. Gets a bit over the top sweet. Nice for a glass.