Bottled 345 ml at Irish Murphy’s Launceston, Tasmania. Sampled on August 6, 2013.Clear copper color, teal head. Sweet, malty, hoppy, fruity, fresh taste, also some citrus. Medium mouthfeel, medium bitterness. Fruity, resin aftertaste. Sweet, caramel, hoppy, fruity, citrus scent.

From a 345ml bottle on 17/8/2013. Pours a light amber with a smallish head. Has a decent sweet malty aroma with a good dose of caramel and toffee. The flavour follows suit, with more caramel and even more pronounced toffee. Features a medium body and medium carbonation. This is actually quite a nice amber and a hell of a lot better than the average rating suggests (I suspect that this is in part because it’s a Woolworths owned brew). Could happily knock a few of these down in a session.

Bottle. Dark brown with a light tan head that fades to a coat quite soon but laces OK. Aroma of mocha, molasses, vanilla, pepper, some floral and orange notes. Silky, low carbonation. Some overt alcohol in the mouth, but no real heat. Pretty sweet. Mocha, dark sugars, very modest roasted flavours. Bitterness lurks: at first just stopping the sweetness from getting out of hand, then creeps up a bit. Leans a bit much towards the sweet side of things for me given that there isn’t a real rumbling bottom end, but pretty good. This is a Good Sign.

From a 640ml bottle on 27/5/2013. Very surprised to find an imperial stout carrying the Sail & Anchor name. My recollection is that they do ultra dull pale lagers (noting that they contract brew with Gage Roads). Pours close to black with a smallish tan head which disappears quickly. Has quite a modest aroma for the style, with some chocolate, choc topping and caramel. Taste wise it’s a sweet one, with milk chocolate most prominent, along with some caramel and a hint of soy, This is balanced out quite nicely by a slightly sharp roasty, hoppy bitterness. Has quite a light body for an imperial, with the carbonation low to medium. Ridiculously easy to drink for something that’s 9.5%. While it lacks the complexity of a really good imperial, it’s none the less an enjoyable sweet, winter sipper. You know things are looking up in the beer world when you can buy an Aussie brewed imperial stout at Dan Murphy’s!

(Bottle) Clear golden amber, with the slightest head. Pleasant fairly subtle aroma of fruity hoppiness. Light body with nice bright prickly carbonation. Nice smooth lightly malty start, with some fruity notes, develops a decent hoppy bitterness which gives a good long bitter finish. Overall a pretty decent pale ale with some hop bite, but not too much.