This is our first crack at this breweries range. It’s picked up a few awards over the last few years so we’re looking forward to a rich and decadent stout.
We poured this into a tulip glass with the appearance displaying an opaque black with a 1/2 inch brown head that maintains well, settling to a thin layer on top. Not a great deal of lacing, but enough to leave some trails. The nose packs a tight little arsenal of aroma’s. We picked up gorgeous roasted wafts of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, oak and subtle alcohol. The texture is pretty good, we’re enjoying a silky smooth mouth feel with low carbonation. Medium-full body. Plenty of roasted elements in the flavour here. Upfront we picked up chocolate, coffee and charcoal. The mid-palate continues with a slight roasted bitterness with a hint of vanilla to balance out the heavy roast that’s coating the tongue. The finish, is again roasted with a soft bitterness at the end. 8.5% ABV is quite well buried. This is a good stout, really strong flavours, but the dominance of heavy and burnt malts and coffee gets a little overpowering towards the end. Could do with a bit more hops or some balancing ingredient…other than that, not a bad offering at all.