Bottle. Opaque black brown with slight beige head. Subtle but pleasant aroma of stout - dark roast malt, oatmeal. Huge velvety silky mouthfeel - the carbonation expands in the mouth - creamy. Taste is a disapointment: rather bland - some treacle / caramel notes, some dark chocolate. Overall, OK but not special.

From a 330ml bottle on 13/6/2010. Has a bit of burnt toffee on the nose. The flavour is sweet caramel, balanced by an almost sour fruitiness. Reasonably Interesting but doesn’t really inspire.

From a 330ml bottle on 24/5/2010. Has quite a powerful fruity, floral nose. The flavour is a bit more subdued - it has a pleasant fruity sweetness, and a moderate but lasting hop finish, .which almost tastes a little wine like. A solid, if not spectacular, APA

Pours copper/ruby with a very small but lasting head.Nose is very heavy on the malt, with caramel, golden syrup and figs to be found. Very rich. Nutty and bready notes follow later. Resinous hops are noticeable but struggle to keep up with the malt. Very nice!Flavours are similarly rich with loads of nutty notes, darker malt (even some prominent roasted barley) and some of the caramel mentioned earlier. Hops really take a back seat here. Finishes with an assertive roasty and hoppy bitterness. Some alcohol is just noticeable.The body could be a bit richer, with such complex flavours it sometimes becomes watery.Seems to be a mish-mash of the ESB and English strong ale stryles, with a healthy dose of roasted barley chucked in for good measure.

Pours hazy copper with a small head.Nose shows sweet caramel, smoke, bacon and light roasted malt.More smoke and bacon show as flavours, with sweet clean malt in the background.Creamy low carbonation and body.

Pours dark amber with a lovely creamy head.Nose shows simcoe-style resin and pine with lots of caramell and nutty malt underneath. Very nice.Flavours include more nutty and caramel malt before a strong, resinous, aggressive bitterness takes over.Lovely creamy carbonation, if perhaps a bit strong.

[1/10] 500 ml bottle, 14C. Pours very dark brown with a small creamy beige head. Complex fruit, nut and earth aroma. Tastes barely sweet. No Porto characteristics. Smooth and nutty. Firm finish. Everything’s well integrated. Balanced and nuanced. [4.1][4/11] This one (and last couple I’ve had) is overcarbonated. Fixed by a swirl or three and letting it sit, but a shame. Otherwise lovely deep malts and nice balance the same. Very fine. [4][3/15] 1/2 an inch of beer, 5 of head. Pear-flavoured travel sweets and boot polish. Undrinkable. Sigh. 2 1 3 1 5 = 1.2 After some thought, can’t leave it sitting at 4 after that, so averaging last two scores.

Bottle. Pours bronze, decent beige head fades to a respectable coating. Aroma has some fruity malts and spruce. Smells pretty brusque. Very gassy mouthfeel. Still too carbonated after 30 minutes, although now some some nice fruit and caramel things are detectable. Moderate bitterness. At least on the evidence of this bottle, these guys haven’t quite got the bottle conditioning thing reliably right.

Bottle. Dark orange. Huge off-white head, at least a centimetre of which is retained all the way down the (test-tube style) glass.. High bead, some floating bits. Floral and grass hop aroma with some apricots and bread. Lots of honey and apricot sweetness that’s just about kept in check by the bittering. Soft mouthfeel. Stylistically confused it may be - it tastes like an EPA with some musty Belgian touches and Czech hops - but it’s pretty tasty and alive in an easy-going sort of way.

Red-brown, a finger of light tan head. Nose has chocolate malt and some grass. Some savoury hints, but smoke is not obviously there for me. Taste is berry sweet and malty, with some ham notes. Smooth texture. Just a little bitterness at the end. A bit dull. [old rating 2.5] Head vanishes to a few wisps. This time I can smell plenty of smoke and there’s smoke in the dry finish too. Seems rather less sweet too - there’s more vanilla than chocolate this time. Not bad.