On tap 01.05.09. Black brown, off white head. Aroma is chocolate, malt, and roasted nuts. Flavor is the same with an oily body, caramel, pine, coffee, dry finish. To me, this is more like a dry stout.

Bottle 330mL. Chocolate malty aroma. Very close to black beer with a hint of red in it. Good size head and good head retention (tan colour). Smooth tasting black beer. Chocolate malty taste. Not burnt tasting at all. Short finishing and a bit weak in flavour compared to other good black beers.

On tap at Mac’s Brewery, Wellington (NZ). Opaque black body with average beige creamy head. its malty/hoppy aroma carries black chocolate and roasty hints. Taste is OK but lacks complexity and ends with a decent bitter/roasty finish. Honest effort.

(Bottle 4.8%, thanks to my friend Alex) Pours dark brown (almost black in the glass) with a light brown head. Nice roasted malt aroma with tones of coffee, caramel, liquorice and a touch of smoke. Also some hints of dark chocolate, nuts, dark juicy bread and molasses. Bit metallic. The flavour is light to medium roasted with caramel, chocolate and coffee and some background notes of mild salt liquorice, nuts, smoke, pepper, minerals/wet stone and metal. The mouthfeel is rather creamy and soft with some hard edges from the roast and the metallic tones. Hops far away in both in the aroma and flavour, very woody and English in character. Caramel sweet without being that sticky. Malt lingers with tones of caramel and chocolate. Light to medium bodied. A nice one.

Bottle in New Zealand. Black beer with a weakly roasted and coffee aroma, and a roasted and lightly bitter/dry flavour. Overall an average dark beer.