Bottle thanks to Andy! Pours a near clear deep amber with a grayish brown head that dissipates to the edges slowly. Aroma has a a combination of sweet dark bread and spice with a bit of underlying dark fruits. Flavor is much more dark fruit forward with spice coming out in the finish and underlying dark grain and bread notes.

Bottle thanks to ksurkin: Poured a deep thick black with a finger to two finger light brown head. Aroma is sweet chocolate, light vanilla, and malts. Taste is boozy bourbon, sweet dark chocolate, edgy smoke, and loads of malts.

Bottle thanks to ksurkin: Poured a orange copper/rusty color with a huge off white fluffy head. Aroma is yeasty, bread, caramel malts, and some hops. Taste is a mix of medicinal fruit, yeast, some woodsy flavor as well. Leaves the tongue tingly.

Draft at the brewpub. Pours a hazy rust color with a medium sized creamy tan head. Decent head retention. Aroma of spice, dark fruits, whisky, caramel. The taste is big spice notes, marzipan, eggnog, herbal notes, whisky, caramel, dark fruits, currants, bready notes. Medium bodied, slight lingering bitterness, muddled.

Served on draft at Beer Run. Pours a clear dark rust color with a thin creamy tan head. Decent head retention. Aroma of herbal notes, dark brown sugar, soy. The taste is earth, treacle, plum, soy, bread, spice, dark fruits and herbs. Medium bodied. Nice, but not to my liking.

Bottle at Paul’s. Pours orange gold with white head. Nose and taste is bretty, lemon funk, Belgian yeast and orange. Medium body. Dryish finish.

Rich deep copper coloured body with a hint of an amber glow with a thick, five centimetre tall tan head - very nice. Aroma of oak, yeast, coriander seed, a hint of curacao and some nice light hops to balance the malt. Medium-bodied; Nice grassy and hay flavour at first with a good yeast strain flavour with a hint of apples and concord grapes with a relatively light malt flavour and almost no sweetness and hops to speak of - just some light spices and herbal notes at the finish. Aftertaste is a bit complex with an alcohol bite, some light fruit notes, a little spice and the pungent yeast characteristic. Overall, not a bad beer, and a decent beer for sure, but not as good as I was expecting from looking at the rankings. I sampled this 75 cL bottle purchased from Trader Joe’s in Alexandria (Old Town), Virginia on 05-October-2012 for US$9.99 sampled at home in Washington on 19-December-2012.

Draft at the brewpub. Pours a clear copper color with a thin frothy white head. Decent head retention. Aroma of peppery, citrus hops and caramel malts. The taste is caramel malts, citrus and earthy hops. Medium bodied. Solid beer.

Bottle. Deep, bright clear golden color, massive cream colored head with good retention and solid lacing. Aroma of earthy clay, straw, subtle brandy. Taste is caramel, white wine, vanilla. Tasty enough.