Dirty black head. Burnt charcaol and licorice. A bit unbalanced and random. That said was interesting.

Sweet matl hop aroma. Dark red brown colour with good head and lacing. Sweet malt chocolate flavour. Smooth palate.

Another oddball near-miss from Matilda Bay. Good on them for continuing to experiment with this sort of stuff. Can’t say I’ve been blown away by the results so far, but you have the feeling that one of these "limited releases" will be a knockout. This one looked great, dark brown with a bit whipped cream head. The head-scratching began with the aroma, which to my nose combined whipped vanilla cream pudding, natural yoghurt, grout, wheat malts and salt. Especially salt. Great creamy mouthfeel - lovely. The taste evoked lots of sweet flavours, but finished incredibly salty. (As someone smarter than me at the gathering observed, it’s almost savoury.) Sticky caramel and banana cream with a lick of salt for afters. Bizarre. No idea how old the sample is, so the above observations may or not be a feature of bottle age. (Coz’s Ashfield RB get-together 07. Thanks Bridge for this one.)

On tap at automatic, Melbourne. Pours a very deep copper brown with a fluffy, lacy tan head. Aroma of banana, chocolate, a slight wheaty tartness, toffee and apple (in a good way). Perhaps some vanilla too. The mouthful is just amazing, smooth, full, a touch sweet, roasty and herbal... goes down effortlessly. Lots of cocoa line the flavours, as well as a modest amount of dark fruity ester notes, black forest fruits perhaps. Wheaty sharpness comes through in the finish, with more dusty cocoa, cloves and a peppery hoppiness. This stuff is just great!

Deep, dark ruby body with a tight beaded light tan head. Initially the banana notes are noticeable in the aroma followed by a lot of cloves. Cloves at the front in the taste, some cocoa but not too much else. Certainly easy enough to drink just doesn’t do a lot for me