“Full of Luscious British and New Zealand malts, balanced by classic hops and an oak finish. Full bodied and satisfyingly moreish.”

Glassware: Snifter.

Appearance: Solid black with a thumb of light brown foam perched neatly on top. Good retention and a wet cascading lace being strewn down the glass.

Aroma: Nothing extraordinary. It has a reasonably dense bottom end of dark chocolate, sweet espresso, subtle roast, toasted marshmallow, musk and rich toffee/caramel. The oak chips are too timid for our liking plus the stout as a whole (considering its substantial ABV of 8%) is a bit too reserved.

Flavour: There’s a wee bit more here but again, not enough for an oak aged quasi-imperial stout. It’s a mirror image of the nose; chocolate, coffee, light roast, toffee and treacle/burnt brown sugar shifting in to a pretty passive finish of mild roast and kinda sweet sugars. Decent length to it at least.

Mouthfeel: Oily but a little too lean. Mild bitterness in the swallow. Low-ish Co2. 8% ABV fairly well behaved.

Overall: For a brewery that has one of the best barrel aged stouts in its arsenal this is painfully mediocre. Considering the world class quality of the Ramjet and Roger Ramjet series we were expecting a lot more from this stout.