Backlog March 2009, 2004 vintage. Amber with no head. Aroma has caramel, raisins, dry fruit and acidity. Taste is very sweet with malt, dry fruit, Sherry, cellar notes and slightly sour, alcoholic finish. Fine body, long lasting aftertaste. Quite nice, but more a really interesting brew.

dark amber pour, no carbonation, aroma is musty, with some dark fruit, and a touchof bready malts. MOuthfeel is exactly like hard liquor, not swee tat all, and bitter. Flavour is like i just took a shot of cheap wattered down rye. Just awful.....gave me big time shivers. The finish and aftertaste are the best part, some nice bitter chocolate, and a really nice maple syrup note. But other than that i couldnt get past the flavour, and i dumped it.

Pulled out of my cellar. Dated 2001. Cork broke in half and had to push other half into bottle. Hazy dark amber with absolutely no head. Aroma is like wine. Taste is old dry wine with a very astringent feel. It HAD to be better than this in it's day.

Bottle next door, from the Fullers advent calendar, 21/12/24. Deep amber to chestnut brown topped with a good sized frothy beige head. Nose is fruit loaf, brown bread, biscuit, toasted grains, caramel. Taste comprises fruit cake, biscuit, toffee, brown bread, dates, prunes. Medium bodied, fine carbonation, semi drying close with a light bitter edge. Decent.

First out the Fullers advent calendar and this is a good one. HSB is a lovely beer and I'm glad they have finally decided to bottle it. Good pour and no real head. Plenty of sweet malts and caramel make this a proper best bitter. No where near as good as the cask version, but a good start.

Musty, earthy and stuffy with hints of malts and prunes. Heavy and musty.

Smells like straight vinegar. Boozy malt, slightly bitter, no trace of carbonation, and a very faint tartness in the finish. It’s fine, but I’m underwhelmed.