7.6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7.5
Flavor 7.5
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
750mL bottles, 2002 and 2003 vintages (white label bottles; the red label was later), if I remember correctly, had fresh and then with a bit of age on them. Was waiting to rate this from an aged 2003 bottle, but then my girlfriend at the time and I broke up and I never got the bottles that I was keeping at her parents' house (handful of old Cisco, Ipswich, SA Triple Bock).
I think I wanted this to be a bit more exciting than it ever was, regardless of age. Better with some age on it, to take some of the hop character out of it, given it was true-to-style of its day and had plenty of bittering hop. But not so much as to be obnoxious, and was certainly rich, malty, intensely bready, with a lightly phenolic yeast and little/no alcohol. Weird that they stopped making this so quickly.
Tried
from Bottle
on 20 Jun 2026
at 12:43