Bottle(thanks to Rachel for holding this for me). Jet black with a large tan head. Aroma is subtle, dark fruit and vanilla. Flavour is bitter chocolate, wood with a gentle warming whiskey base. Velvet texture.

Draught. Jet black with a coffee head. Aroma is light sweet roast. Flavour is pronounced chocolate, strong base of roasted malt, vanilla cream on a very long dry roasted base.
Earlier Rating: 12/22/2012 Total Score: 3.6
Draught. Black with a tan heat. Aroma is dry malt. Flavour is toasted coffee malt with a touch of creamy vanilla. Dusty dry velvet finish. Very drinkable.

Draught. Thin orange a a medium head. Excellent lacing. Aroma is fruity hop, almost ginger. Fruity hop flavour, yeasty on the lips, bubbly heart on a long bitter finish.

Draught. Dark red to black with a full head. Aroma is a sort of sweetish malt ( not well up on cat piss so I can’t compare :-)). Flavour is dark fruity malt, spicy forest on a lovely long dry jam malt finish. Dark brown sugary bitter hop finish.

Cask. Hazy red with a full off white head. Aroma is grapefruit hop. Flavor is bittersweet, dark fruit, a little sugary on a bitter base, smooth toasted fruit finish

Proper Imperial thank God, not an imitation. Color was caramel and hints of orange, small white head that was gone quickly. Some soapy notes in the aroma along with the chewy juicy hops. Solid malt backbone here as well but the hops are really in the forefront. Nice crisp finish, oily hop resin that stays on the back of the tongue.

Bottle very generously from Garthicus, Thanks a bunch Al and glad we could meet up in London. Batch 032 BBE Feb 2016. Black beer thick lasting tan head. Now I haven’t had an imperial stout in ages. Due to all that German lager and all those session ipas what I’ve been drinking. Some roast malt and dark bitter choc on aroma. I must admit it’s not a huge aroma. Perhaps it needs to warm up a bit. Little bit of tangerine sweetness from the barrel ageing on the aroma. It’s, well, I’m not sure. I think it could be really good, but I’m not sure after that first taste. It has some dark chocolate which I like and the whiskey element is not overly obvious which I like and I do like the satsuma tangerine flavour it lend to the beer. It’s quite full in the mouth, it has some pate. A whiff of newspaper stout dryness. I mean it does intrigue me, which not many impy stouts do. But as I say I haven’t had one in a while so it’s a bit of a novelty this evening too. Ok, so where is this beer? It has some good elements, the dark choc, the barrel ageing. There’s still a bit of a hole in the malts though. I like smooth, agile effortless impy stouts or ones that completely take over your senses. No real hop presence. It’s fine. But there is just a little newspaper emptiness there. Still an interesting Irish impy stout.

Bottle from Garthicus. Thanks a bunch Al. Dry Hopped IPA version. Hazy amber lasting beige head. PNW grapefruit piney hoppy aroma. Yep it’s a good West Coast IPA clone. Pretty good hops. Some bitterness on the finish. Lychee and black pepper on the finish. A little bit of sweetness maybe from some crystal malt. Lovely hops though and I can’t believe this is coming out of Ireland compared with a lot of the beers from Eire. Very sessionable. Ho ho ho.