Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle @ benzai thx to benzai. Pitch black colour with a small beige to light brown head. Smells coffee, roasty, grassy. Tastes a lot of coffee, a lot of chocolate, chocolate bitterness, chocolate. Full body, soft carbo.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Bottle [thanks to jmgreenuk] shared with Dutchdrebus, Joes, Thompson and Countbeer. Black color, small brown head. Aroma has malts, roasted malts, coffee. Taste malts, roasted malts, coffee, bitter. Medium body, medium carbonation. Nice one!
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle from the Brew By Numbers brewery. Poured a light amber/ dark golden colour with a dense, but thin white head. Strong aroma of tangerine, floral hops and banana essence. Bready malt flavours with notes of raisins and Seville oranges. Finish was straw, white grapes and wheat. Good fruity golden ale. Why can’t all golden ales be more like this?
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle from Cotteridge Wines, Birmingham. Poured a deep mahogany with a frothy tan head. The aroma is big roasted malt, creamy chocolate and coffee. The flavour is strong bitter. Full bodied with low carbonation and an oily texture. The palate is big chewy liqourice with a lovely long bitter finish. This rally is an awesome stout.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle shared thanks to Jmgreenuk. Pours near black with a thick beige head. Aroma of roast, caramel, toffee, dark chocolate and some coffee. Flavour is moderate sweet and bitter. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
Bottle from The Beerhive. Hazy golden body with a medium white head. Lively carbonation. Nice lacing. Aroma of lemon cake, coriander, ginger and tamarind. Soft dry citrus and muted peppery spice. Clean but lacking a crisp sharpness. Medium body with an oily texture. Soft carbonation. A pleasant, refreshing but slightly dull Saison.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Bottle at home in London - picked up at the brewery. Pours lightly hazy, dark orange-gold with a sturdy, frothy white head that relaxes into a cream. The aroma holds lots of creamy citrus, orange, mango, hints of pine. Medium sweet flavor with lightly toasted pale malts, bread, mild piney bitterness and ripened citrus fruits - orange, grapefruit, tangerine. Medium bodied with fine carbonation. Mild hoppy pine resins to finish, strong bready malts, further orange, a bit of bitter citrus rind. An IPA with a fairly pronounced malt backbone to counter the ample hops in there. Good stuff.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle at home in London - picked up at the brewery. Pours almost perfectly clear, quite effervescent, with a large, wispy white froth head. Enticing aroma with lightly doughy malts, some wheat, hints of lemony citrus, bubblegum, perhaps some cardamon. Light to medium sweet flavor with doughy white bread, lightly tangy lemon, wheat, subtle spices, slight citrus rind bitterness. Light bodied with lively, massaging carbonation. Dynamic finish with further pale bread, wheat, hints of lemon meringue, tangy citrus, vanilla and other mild spices, slight hay. Exceptionally well balanced and drinkable.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle at home thanks to my BNB pusher Leighton. Aroma is huge wharfs of juicy tropical cascading from the glass. There is peach surbert, lemon zest, hint of pine. Wonderful. Rich golden colour with a uniform steadfast white head. Small haze. Flavour is composed of clean pale malt profile, with a light biscuit. Hop flavour is fruit salad, pine and light spicy pepper in the finish. Aggregive biting grapefruit bittering that lingers around at the back of the throat. Bitterness is a bit heavy handed for me, but the hop aroma is just wonerful. I’m sure that aroma would present itself better in the flavour had it not been for the massive bittering charge. Still a great beer.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9
Bottle at home in London. Version with ABV of 7.4%, bottled on 06/02/2013, so the beer has had plenty of time to develop. Pours deep brown-black with a huge, lasting beige foam head. The aroma is quite dynamic, with plenty of well roasted malts at the core, surrounded by baking cocoa, some dark fruits and toasted bread. Medium sweet flavor with rich, slightly bittersweet cocoa, restrained charred malts, some raisins, chocolate cake, light flinty minerals, some dark bread, milk chocolate. Medium to full bodied with average carbonation and an exceedingly creamy mouthfeel. The finish has just a touch of alcohol warmth, followed by lots more richly roasted malts, baking cocoa, moderate scorched earth bitterness, ash, slight tobacco and further chocolate cake. Rich and complex, this beer is also impressively well balanced and drinkable. If you happen to be sitting on a bottle of this beer that was released in early 2013, I would drink it now because I cannot envision it getting any better than this.