Bottle. Black with no head. Aromas are dry coffee and cocoa powder. Very floral with Parma Violet sweets. Has a peat smokiness. Some caramel and biscuit. Flavours are smooth Winter fruit and chocolate with earthy dry notes. Some cocoa powder on the finish.

500ml bottle from BeersOfEurope. Sprightly carbonation from the bottle conditioning. Tastes like some priming sugar has been used when bottling, though not quite enough yeast has been used so there is just too much sweetness, and after the carbonation has settled there is a strange flat feeling. Sweet and pleasant though this is, and as much as I like Hampshire beers, this does taste like an amateur homebrew that’s gone wrong. I’ve made a couple like this. Indeed, the stout I have in my cask outside tastes quite similar, and I regard that as a failure. Caramel flavours. Few hops. Like sarsaparilla, or some other sweet beer substitute rather than a real beer. Drinkable, but strangely poor.

Cask at The Dolphin, Southampton. Black. Fruity aroma of figs and tobacco. Medium sweet with rounded mouthfeel. Earthy and very fruity with notes of rhum and madeira. Mild yet flavourful with it’s wealth of flavours coming from ther roasty malt. Dark fruit and grass in the finish.

Bottle. Deep, black body. Off-white head. Aroma of coffee. Bitter flavour, very dry and not so complex. Not very intense.

Bottle. Sour, with some sweet roasty malt characters. Finish is metallic with a harsh acidity. Not very good. Very dissapointed.