NO COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION

Glassware: Snifter.

Appearance: Impenetrable black pour with a finger of dark tan head nestled in on top. Good retention and spotty lace work left in its wake.

Aroma: Hhhmmm, nice set of aromas but it seems to be well short in the depth department. We’re getting muted notes of dark chocolate, coffee, metal, charred wood, toasted oats and cocoa. It’s rather frustrating coz the bulk of it is really good, it’s just too standoffish.

Flavour: Thankfully it pumps the accelerator a bit more here. Nice and roasty with bitter dark chocolate, charred wood, ash, espresso coffee, burnt toast and the oats coming through with a dry, bready earthiness. It’s still too shy for our liking though, especially considering it’s a stout, which are all about intense and in your face flavours. Needs more oomph.

Mouthfeel: Full bodied, creamy and finely carbed. The 5.6% ABV is neither here nor there really.

Overall: We’d love to see the brewers boost that ABV up to over 6% and extract more intensity out of the malt bill. People will probably say “it’s only a core range stout, it’s meant to be approachable”. We’d say fair point but look at stouts like MC’s Moon Dust, Reckless and Boatrocker…all of them big and intense core range stouts that kick arse. This one, not so much.