Small dark brown head of coarse lace. Utterly opaque pitch black body. Massively sweet hickory chocolate aroma with notes of milky caramel and alcohol. Burnt toast taste with dry burnt chocolate aftertaste. Notes of wild berries. Smoothish. Sooty taste lingers. Lovely aroma, but taste is maybe somewhat lacking in complexity. Still a great beer. (0.34l bottle. 2005 vintage.)

2005 vintage, 0.341l bottle courtesy of Sasquatch911 (thanks Francois!), and shared with ozujsko. Black, completely black beer with a tiny brown head. Impressive. The nose is pure instant coffee, some chocolate, and some chicory. The taste.... well.... it’s spot on on a kind of coffee substitute made from chicory (Divka or Bianka brands), and it’s quite good. Black, bitter chocolate. Roasty. Some very weak acidity, and maaaaybe just a touch of hops. Heavy, thick body. Great stuff. My first Imperial Stout, and I feel that this has every right to be called that.

0.341l bottle courtesy of Sasquatch911 (thanks a lot Francois !!!) shared with ozujsko. Its presentation (aroma and appearance) might just be the best I’ve seen in a beer. Beautiful dark red/black, small but thick and persistant tan head. The nose was brilliant. Jaffa cakes, or, more closely, the orange liquor used in the best stracciatella icecream mixed with noble milk chocolate. Hmm... my notes are almost illegible here, but there’s something "almost"... guess almost no alcohol.....sounds right, because I could feel very little in the nose (though ozujsko did feel some when he opened the bottle). Some coffee can be found too. Man, I could smell this for days. The taste is a bit underwhelming after the genius that is the nose. Sweet maltiness that felt a bit Belgian (but not much), alcohol (not assertive (and not surprising, considering that I’ve heard the alcohol is actually above 9.5)), coffee, roasty bitterness, a bit lighter than I expected it to be, some orange jelly and a touch of chocolate liquor. Pure class. I only wish that the taste lived up to the nose. Thanks again Francois !

2010-03-09, vintage 2005, 4+ years old, 7-4-7-3-15=36
Black color; small head. The smoke aroma is still very nice, with roasted malt, and very light traces of oxidisation. The body is not very strong, there is a good mix of caramel, chocolate, light smoke, but also light liquorice and oxidisation, signs of age. Tired, but not bad.

2006-01-27, 8-4-8-4-16=40
Blond color. The malt aroma is overwhelmed by a pungent smokey and vanilla. Medium body, good mix of malt, liquorice, smoked malt; it ends with a coffeish note… Good.