Coopers Special Old Stout

Oil black with a small brown head. Licorice and toffee dominate the aroma. The body is full and has a reasonable complexity, and the mouthful is thick.. almost oily. Shows some charcoal in the finish, along with a light bitterness, the alcohol is well hidden. I’m pretty sure best extra is better than this.

Absolute black with a thick brown head. Similar to the Best Extra (of course), with roasted almonds, licorice and burnt toast, but also a sweet toffee. A good balance in the flavour, with the burnt bitterness complemented with some rounded sweetness. Perfect level of carbonation, leading off a well rounded palate. Best after 27/09/03, this bottle has shown it handles ageing well. Very good brew. Re-rate: As both an Australian and a fan of Foreign Stouts I’m probably a bit biased, but I think this is one hell of a beer. Having it with my scraped together home-made pizza I get an amazing hazelnut flavour. With a great aroma and ’drink me’ flavour, this would have to be my desert island beer....

[bottle at LCRBM] The aroma is burnt malts, coffee, some dark fruit, and a little smoke. thin body, touch of bitterness.

No#70. Im at number 70 already wtf. Aroma is burtn malt with dark fruity notes kickin in and coffee too. Taste is very similar though thin, with a fizzier palate than what i wanted.

No head (left); nearly black beer with some red highlights. Burnt malts, burnt liquorice, burnt-sweet taste, does that exist? Liquorice, moccha, faint cigarette ash and a discreet, but (dark sugar) syrupy sweetness. Slick & syrupy, well bodied. Chocolate in the aftertaste. I had expected MUCH more from this. 6 months didn’t do it much good. Mind you, it was not served in ideal circumstances, but all the same. Thanks to the Londoner Aussies for bringing this rare bird!

Bottle at RBG Low Countries 2005 Tasting Session
Totally black body, like very strong coffee or motor oil. Virtually no head. Molasses and strong coffee in the nose. Moderately bitter initial flavour. Lightly bitter finish. Very weak, especially since it’s 6.8% ABV.

Bottled. Oooooh yeah - big flavours: licorice, some kind of smoked/burnt wood, coffee, chocolate. A tad oily and very syrupy. Thick and dark, definitely benefits a lot from the aging.

Bottle: This looked simply fantastic! Opaque syrupy black with a solid crema-like brown head. The aroma was interesting... It took me a couple of minutes to work out that it reminded me of olives!?! With closer inspection a subtle roastyness shone through, but the real deal came some minutes later as the beer opened up - loads of coffe and meaty roasty/charcoal aromas. Strangely it all worked very nicely together. The flavour struck me as very unique; Salty, slightly wine-like syrupyness, and some gentle acidity finishing with enourmous length in the form of roasted coffee (looong!). Really full bodied, yet the age adds some intriguing (lactic?) character. Very dry, powdery finish. Really nice.