Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Bottle from the Beer Emporium, Bristol. Hazy gold, with some relatively large floaters and thin white head. Sweet, honeyed, notes, a touch of floral hop, something spicy and a gently warming finish. Drinkable, but didn’t really come together.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Draught Small, but stable cream-coloured head; dark red-ruby to brownish veiled beer. Vinous nose, red fruit, fresh oak, touch of vanilla, strawberry cream. Beautiful aromas, super-inviting. Vinous, wood, milkchocolate-covered red fruit. Finish is wry(ish) oak, wood undergrowth. No vanilla here, older oak. Not lame, but the flavours are falling away rather quickly, vinosity no longer there in the aftertaste. Well-bodied and oily, yet thinner as expected. Superb upgrade for the Samaranth - in itself not a punishment. Great achievement, folks!
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Draught Very good, fine & dense white head, fully hazy yellow beer with straw/verdigris sheen. Yeast & (root)spices, dried vegetables, bit stale. Very dry flavour, faintly citrussy, surprisingly good and even fresh after the stale nose. Very light, bit undercarbonated but quite refreshing. Exactly correct as aimed: for those needing to drive home, and yet yearning for a homemade drop.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Draught Very dense & fine, rather stable cream-coloured head over fully hazy red-amber beer. Roasted vegetable (the pumpkin) from the oven, hint at soap, lightly coloured malts, speculoos. Roasted, vegetable & grain. Sweetness, but restrained, again as caramelized vegetable from the oven. Quite slick, but taste and MF falling rather away in the finish, little aftertaste. Agreable - no fireworks but pleasing easy-drinking beer, with some plausible culinary pretentions.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Draught Very small white rim over pale golden beer. Malty nose, definitely the one for the grain. Maltbomb, bit of cornflakes, hint at honey, ripe grain. Quite (grist)slick, light body. Little in the matter of aftertaste. Yeah, I understand. But I would have preferred a double dose of noble hops.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Draught Gold-orange beer, very fine & dense snowwhite head leaving lace. Fresh malts, even greenmalt, garden herbs, grass. Dry, yet maltsugars galore; herbal, slightly grassy flaovur. Citruspeel (lime) peeping through in the finish. Refreshing, light to medium bodied, feels more carbonated than it looks. Long dryish, balanced aftertaste. Ah. This one got the time to ripen. Better than the sum of its parts.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Draught Fully yeast-laden brown beer with rusty sheen; yellow-cream head, fed by fine carbonation. Nose of pure, fresh yeast, as if just added; bit of green herbs/grass; gassy. Yeast-flavoured, fresh bread, rather a lot of sweet malts; milk chocolated, ovomaltine, worts. Yeast-filled, well-carbonated, beefed-up body. Should have had the opportunity to drop bright and ferment out much more. The ransom of succes... Second try Much more clear brown-amber beer. Small to medium cream head. Spicy-herbal nose, with a point of ginger. Chocolate flavour; bitter finish; again herbal with once more ginger. Other taster detects clove. Medium bodied, not very carbonated. All ’unfinished’ flavours gone, and the drab yeast - way better.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Typical Guinness-like head, same colour, as the beer is the colour of the famous black cow’s milk. Chocolate, roasted dark malts, but all in all, rather demure. Hint at hops, however. Tastes as a Guinness-clone, with a more intriguing coffee-chocolate-sweetish flavourcombination, especially in the finish; whilst retronasal, more classical ashy flavours appear retronasal. Medium bodied, outspoken gristslickness; chocolate flavour keeps longgoing in the aftertaste. Strong Guinness-likliness, despite the stronger ABV compared to the draught, or weaker towards the VSES.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Draught Utterly yeast-clogged yellow beer as mushed peaches with pulverised grain, under small, snowwhite rim. Fresh yeast, green beer, bananaester, smelling very young. Yeast-determined, hints at coriander, but relatively little citrusnotes. Again bananaester, unripe banana. Finish shows something of old bread. Yeast-filled, slick, not very well-bodied. Could be a tad young, end of cask (actually, it was a mistake of a breweryhand at the end of mashing!!), but it somehow cannot convince at 100%
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Draught Very good dense & fine yellow-cream head over fully hazy ruby-brown beer. Woody, green leaves and even spruce aromas; fresh (dark) malt, melanoidins; faint meaty-yeasty esters. Nose hints at outstanding balance bitter-sweet. Faintly smokey, woody, hints at chocolate malt. Very restrained sweetness, but warming up, soft marzipan notes and crème de marrons. Surprisingly light body for announced ABV ànd colour - medium bodied at best. Bit oily, buttery MF. Easily drinkable for its ABV, appealing beer, inviting a second one.