UPDATED: MAR 19, 2019 March 2018 bottling. Pours opaque black with a dense brown head. Pronounced initial aroma of olives, eventually dissipating entirely as it sits, giving way to malts, acidic fruit and heavily roasted coffee. Medium sweetness, strong burnt bitterness. Medium-full body, soft carbonation, very creamy with a lingering burnt bittersweet finish.

UPDATED: MAR 2, 2019 Wig and pen Russian imperial Aroma: sweet malt, 6 App: black flat head 3 Flavour: loads of balanced sweet malt, some dark fruit 8 Palate: finishes nutty 3 Overall 16

Weekend of Darkness 2015. Good classic stout pour. Aroma is subtle dark malts - not big on smell. Taste is dark malt richness without being astringent, nice sweetness, subtle. Palate is nice texture - silky smooth. Very solid RIS.

I’m just updating my records. Had this beer at the Australian beer festival at the rocks. A great big and strong stout.

the essential Aussie beer geek beer. on tap. pours black with just a ringed collar. Much better looking as drank on and get a dark brown head with swirling. nose is of alcohol, wood, char, licorice, chocolate and dark fruits. Big and bold. licorice at first and changes to fruit, chocolate, smoke, ash and char. Nice Thick and coating in the mouth. Still a bit hoppy in the end with some char and burnt tires. Best RIS in Australia.

Figure I should finally rate the original Australian geek beer. In 2004 I travelled to Canberra on the release weekend just to try it. I would have given it low 4s back then, but I think my tastes must have changed now. Standard serve is 330mL (in a FULL snifter - geez) when you can get halves of most other stuff, and it’s just WAY too much. Nice aroma of tar, raspberries and heaps of woody mid-range coffee notes with little hop. On the palate it’s HEAVY. There’s clearly a lot of roast and hop bitterness in there, but it’s just swallowed up by the glycerol-like malt richness. Not sweet as such, just massive. It just desperately needs something (roast, bitterness, acid) to cut through it to make it drinkable. Of course serving it in such big glasses doesn’t help either. Absolutely unique beer, perhaps as big a mouthfeel as I’ve ever come across, and a real icon of the Aussie micro scene. Shame I didn’t like it more.

Wow. This is a huge beer. Opaque black, softly carbonated, with a medium head. Would have been rated 4.8 if it didn’t have such an alcohol taste to it. More floral/ctirus notes than coffee/smoke which when added to the intensity, makes it world class. Awesome stuff.

UPDATED: AUG 25, 2009 On tap. Beautiful beer, nice aroma of coffee, lasting complex flavour, bitter ending. The high alcoholic content is not overwhelming. One of the best beers I ever tried.

Tap. Black ale with a small dark brown head. Smells and tastes of dried fruit, chocolate and wood. Dense creamy mouthfeel and finishes with a pronounced bitterness. This is world class.

UPDATED: AUG 1, 2009 This is easily one of the best beers i have ever tasted. Big rich deep burnt creamy molasses aroma. Mouthfeel is even bigger with well balanced combination of alcholol, malt, roastness and bitterness. An exceptional beer.