This pitch black beer has a huge, silky smooth and lasting nougat head, that leaves nice islands of foam. The aroma has notes of chocolate malt and alcohol. The flavour is very powerful and it has a strong, slightly harsh bitterness from the dark roasted malts. It has notes of roasted malt, smoke. berries soaked in rum, licorice, bitter chocolate, coffee and alcohol. There is an additional note, that I cannot pinpoint, but it disturbs the overall impression for me. I’ll have to taste it again (old rating).

Bottle. Very dark brown with a medium to big light brown head. Nice leafy bitter hop tang. Oily mouthfeel. Piney aroma.

Bottle, at Plan B, RBESG pub crawl, August 2005. Black, yes. Dublin, not so sure. There’s certainly plenty of burnt malt, with a light bitterness, but there’s also some underlying sweetness that I wasn’t expecting, especially in a "dry" stout. Also touches of cocoa/chocolate. Goes down smooth. Pleasant enough.

Mildly roasty malts in the simple but pleasant aroma. Opaque black body with fizzy, low, brown head that lasts throughout. Strong roasted malt and chocolate flavour. Medium body with moderate carbonation. Bottle sampled at Plan B in Copenhagen.

50cl bottle from my Summer Santa and enjoyed in my Stone RIS snifter:

Poured nearly opaque with an initial HUGE frothy tan head which did settle after a while but left only okay lace. The aroma has mostly the standard stuff, smoke, coffee, mocha, earthy and a nice dose of plum/berry. The taste is the strong point with this beer, beside all the charred and chocolate overtones, there is a beautiful layer of currant/blackberry running about and even lingering a bit. The finish is more coffee bitterness and smoke. The feel is lively and moderately oily as expected after the pour, a tad too overcarbonated. In the world of many average dry stouts, this one seems to have more character than the norm. I liked it more than the average ratebeerian as well it seems.