Ridgeway Bad King John

Bottle.
Pours a murky, discombobulated tea brown with a nose of weak grape juice, probably more inline with grape Gatorade, and some roasted nut in there. Flavor is like a weird herbal carbonated fountain drink with hints of fig, wet wooden branch, and nut. Tingly mouthfeel. Not very good, but not horrible.

Bottle 500ml. Colour is dark brown, head brown. Aroma has chocolate, biscuit, darkish malt. Flavor has some roasted malt and coffee.

Bottled. A dark brown beer with a thin brown head. The aroma has notes of caramel, nuts, and alcohol, as well as lighter notes of roasted malt. The flavor is sweet with notes of roasted malt as well as lighter notes of fruit, prunes, cocoa, and bitter nuts, leading to a bitter, roasted almost burnt finish.

Bottle brought back to Norway from the Easter crusade to Alko in Hätta, Finland and shared with my beer companions and fellow historians Konstantin, Rune and Stefan 29.apr.09. We (obviously) all loved the bottle and label. Aroma of malt and chocolate cookies. Quite dry in the mouth and surprisingly thin. Yeast, spruce and malt flavour. Coffee-like finish.

From Premiere Gourmet. Good example of English sublety, nothing too bold just the balance of a little roast, a little Shwartzbier black, a bit above mouthfeel, a bit of licorice as in a porter. Pours black, nothing harsh, delightful with a meal.

Bottle as shown. Pours a clear dark ruby with a small frothy light tan head that leaves decent spotty lacing along the glass. The aroma is a fruity malt with light roast raisin and caramel. Thin mouthfeel with a smokey roasted malt with a nice coffee finish. A good stout from Hepworth.

Cask @ Bishops Arms, Malmö. Pours a dark amber/brown color with a small off-white head. Has a fruity malty dark fruit aroma with hints of caramel. Fruity malty caramel flavor with hints of hops and dark fruit. Has a fruity malty caramel finish.

Bottle: Pours a barely transparent dark mahogany with a thin, wispy-lacing tan head. Aroma of sweet toasty caramel and biscuity malts with a touch of piny English hops. Starts with decent fullness and sweet sugary maltiness with a hint of lingering roast and fresh coffee. A pretty decent stout, but would be better without the sugary character.