Bottle 33 cl. Courtesy of bluebetty. Clear deep golden with an off-white head. Fresh citrusy hops in the nose with an underlying sweetness. Medium body, some caramel sweetness and distinct citrusy hoppiness. The finish may be considered a bit raw and unrefined from the bittering hops, but in general a decent APA. 150311

Tap at GABS. Gold with a little white head. Extremely smooth and very sticky. Nicely integrated alcohol. Layers of light caramel, delicate spicy and earthy hops are there as a seasoning and just about stop it being oversweet. Germanic balance. Not at all my sort of thing but quite elegant.

From a 330ml bottle on 13/10/2010. The smell is fruity hops (lychee, berries) and a bit of caramel and honey. Flavours include toffee, orange and grapefruit. Has a clanging, lasting bitter finish. An excellent beer, particularly for hop heads. Rating 3.7.

Re-rate: From the tap at the Local Taphouse, St Kilda on 27/1/2011 (part of a five beer tasting paddle). Nothing much to add to the above. A very good ESB. Rating 3.7.

Re-rate on 29/4/2017 (bottle. A little less enthused about it this time round, though solid enough.

Pours black with a small tan head.Nose shows rich, sweet roasted malt, lots of dark chocolate and espresso. Very nice.Flavours are more aggressive, lots of roasted character and a bit of trecle without any of the aforementioned chocolate and very little supporting malt. Finishes short and sharp with a roasty bitterness.Body seems a little watery.

Pours orange/amber with a quickly fading head.Nose shows a fair whack of hops, quite piney, spicy, resinous and earthy, along with a hint of tropical fruit. Underneath is a nice load of crystal malt.Similar flavours but with an aggressive bitterness that shows up early in the piece. Could be an IPA really: enough caramel malt, enough juicy and resinous hops, all followed by a bold bitterness. Finishes a bit sharp.Carbonation is suitably high.

[9/10] Dark brown with a light tan head that fades. Aroma has chocolate, prunes, coffee, licorice. More roasted bitter flavours than suggested. Good bitter cocoa, some vanilla. Light-bodied with a just slightly creamy mouthfeel. Slightly astringent. Long but gentle roasted and hoppy bitter finish. Alcohol not at all obvious. Not much depth to the malt flavours and perhaps a little too light-bodied for a foreign stout, but a very nice drop. [3.5] [7/18] Too long to circle back to this one, although in my defence, foreign stout is something that's always been done pretty well here - so there's lots of choice. Still think it's a little light bodied, but appreciate more the balance of roasted flavours and quite firm bitterness.

Bottle. Amber with an off-white head. Modest aroma of butterscotch, stone fruits, passionfruit, citrus and a little pine. Mouthfilling butterscotch and peach malt with tangy citrus and pine. Ringing bitter finish with some astringency from remaining bubbles. Right up my street.

Pours amber with a small head.Nose shows light wheat with plenty of sweet malt and some lemony hops.Flavours are pretty much the same but the malt is dominating, not enough wheat.Much too much carbonation.