Picked up this bad boy at Berko cellars and am impressed with their slow yet expanding craft range. Hope it keeps going.
Poured into a shaker glass it’s mat black with a 20mm tan head that fades very slowly leaving an oil like slick on the top and no lacing down the glass. Just a glimpse of minute carbonation. Nose smells of sweet roasted malts, chocolates, espresso, red wine barrels, and stewed dark fruits. First sip is decadent and rich. Big solid body with minimal carbonation here in the mouth combine with certain bitterness and alcohol on the back palate. We were wondering how the booze came into this when its 10.8% Alc vol. All things considered it’s extremely well hidden behind the roasted malts. We get a tingle on the tonsils now after savouring each sip. More and more flavours of roast, ash, espresso, sweet malt, and glimpses of fruit behind the wall of darkness. As this brew warms up we get more barrel aromas of red wine..maybe pinot? As we get to the bottom the booze has well and truly dissipated and we get a marriage of roasted malts, chocolate and espresso bitterness that glides down the gullet. This is an oily little brew that is bloody tasty. Very quaffable on a cold night.