9th October 2007
Warning! Early amateur rating! Thick dark beer. Mild carbonation. Complex beer. Subtle fruit, trace of root beer. Malt and biscuits. More malt. No bitterness or smoke notes. Very nice.

19th June 2013
Hazy amber - red beer. Pale cream coloured head. Palate is smooth and dry. Fine carbonation providing a little sting. Creamy malt. Mild bubblegum esters. Coca cola and a trace of lactose. Mildly bitter yeast. Little spice. Finishes semi dry. Well joined up and tasty beer. But it ain’t the 2nd coming!

330ml bottle. Pours a hazy burnt amber with no head. Aroma is raisin and caramel malt. Taste is apple with raisin to start. More in the finish.

Friday night beer. Pours an unpenetrable brown with thick tan head that quickly settles. Tastes of fig, plum, raisins, and other dark fruits. You get molasses, wine, chocolate, and slight yeast. Kinda sweet and dry and very delicious

33cl bottle from Sourced @St Pancras Station. Pours a cloudy deep brown colour, with a thin short-lasting tan head. Nose; smokey, barley, dates, figs and currants. Taste; caramel sweetness, liquoirce/fennel, medicinal, rosemary & tyme, rich and complex like a christmas pudding! Very enjoyable, but I prefer the 10.

From a 330ml bottle on 8/12/2010. Pours dark brown and cloudy, with some yeast sediment floating around. The aroma is raisins, plums, port and a touch of chocolate. Surprisingly, it’s relatively straight forward flavour wise. Dark fruit dominates, and it’s extremely sweet - a real dessert beer. It’s also quite smooth and drinkable for a beer that’s 11.3%, thought he alcohol comes to the fore when it warms up. The carbonation is low and it finishes with a modest bitterness. Very nice, though perhaps a tad over-rated. Rating 3.9.

Re-rate on 24/3/2014. Thought it was time to give this another try but on doing so, I remain thoroughly perplexed at the ridiculously high rating for this. Don’t get me wrong - it’s nice enough but it’s falls a very long way short of being great. It lacks a bit of complexity and this bottle was over carbed. Rating 3.7.

Re-rate on 5/8/2017. I keep trying this every once in a while in the hope that I’ll finally understand the hype. Each time, I’m increasingly disappointed. Again over-carbed, and pretty uninspiring flavour wise for such a big beer. To be fair, it’s more than drinkable, but when I think of the truly great brews I’ve imbibed over the years, this is absolutely light years behind them. If this is one of the best beers in the world, then I’m the Pope.

33 cl bottle from Systembolaget. Brown/ruby, hazy appearance with off-white, small to medium head with some lacing. Smells of dark fruits and belgian yeast. Taste is sweet with similar notes as the aroma. Also, some notes of tobacco. Some bitterness in the ending. Some warming alcohol as well, but well hidden. Medium to full bodied with a fruity, dry finish. Really nice, but I prefer the 8 and the 10.

Bottle 330ml @ home
Pours murky dark brown with a tan head. Aroma is sweet with notes of plums, raisin, alcohol and caramel. Taste is very sweet. Texture is oily with soft carbonation.