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.

Bottle from SB, cons 2010-12-09 Göteborg AR: wee yeast, orange peel, white bred, pruns, earthy tones AP: extremly fizzy hazy brown, wee beige quickly dimishing head F: loaded carbonation, prunes, grapes, plums, medium full body, fruity but dry finish

Bottle. Not the most beautiful color, dirty brown with some yeast sediments. The aroma was quite inviting, soap, fruit, raisin and nuts. Taste of malt, yeast, nuts, raisin. A lot of carbonation. An ok beer but it did not taste as much as expected. The mouth feel was surprisingly thin.

Bottle. Pours clear deep amber with hugh off-white head. Aroma is sweet and has notes of dark fruits and caramel. Taste is sweet with dark fruits, caramel, alcohol and some fruity hops.