“The oldest beer in our collection. We have been brewing this beer since 2007 and nailed it so early on it has hardly changed. Very very malty with coffee, burnt toast, and bread flavours. It has a healthy amount of English hops to balance the beer out perfectly. If you’re a dark ale fan, and always chasing those big flavour beers, this one’s for you.”

Glassware: Snifter.

Appearance: Glossy black with a thumb of light brown foam perched on top. Kind of a wet lace being dragged down the glass.

Aroma: Shy at first but once it settles the subtle smoky notes, earthy/roasty malts, coffee, chocolate, metal, toast and even a fresh grassy note (or is that coz I mowed the lawn this morning?! Ha ha). It’s a reasonable aroma it’s just lacking a bit of depth. It’s almost light enough to be a dark ale.

Flavour: He’s packing a bit more heat here, thankfully. There’s a nice roasty-ness up front then mild coffee bitterness, chocolate, toasty malts and a delicate hint of earthy hops. The roast kicks up again late in the piece and leads in to a rather smooth finish with coffee and burnt toast on the back end.

Mouthfeel: A little too lean for a stout. Slightly tinny, moderate Co2. 5.7% ABV neither here nor there.

Overall: Pretty stock standard and nothing really memorable about it. The artwork on the strip is a bit tacky, kind of reminds us of a poorly executed tattoo on the arm of a confused teenager. We’ve had better.