 wheresthepath (280), Buckinghamshire, England
May 16, 2008
[500ml bottle from Tesco’s, Reading] Pours very dark brown with a large but slowly dissipating beige head. There’s a slight but prickly carbonation. Smells of burnt malt and caramel. Initial taste is chocolate with a rich red wine background - the ginger does tingle the back of your throat but is lass prominent than in some other ginger beers (such as Okells Dr Okells Eastern Spice). In fact, at first it tastes rather weak and watery - surprisingly so given the relatively high ABV, with a background sourness.
There’s also an initial burnt bitterness, which along with the sourness quickly gives way to a rather sticky sweetness - like you’ve been eating McVities Jamaica Ginger Cake. Or possibly a thick stodgy treacle cake. The gingery tingle grows with time, along with a hint of smoke, but never really overcomes the cloying stickiness.
The aftertaste is very smokey indeed, more so than I expected while drinking it. I was still left with a sticky mouthcoating, but a lot of dryness came through at the end as well.
Overall it was quite interesting, and after being initially disappointed, I grew to like it more and more over the course of the bottle (in fact, as I right this the aftertaste is improving by the minute!). Wouldn’t mind trying it again sometime to see what I make of it a second time round - I think it would be at its best sat by an open fire on a cold and stormy night!
AndrewC (43), Canterbury, Kent, England
Dec 1, 2008 Excellent sour coffee aroma. Sour, mellow, bitter cooking chocolate, spicy, tangy flavours. Hint of vanilla and smoke. A superb beer.
Beth101 (155), West Yorkshire, England
Nov 21, 2008 Smells malty. The colour of Guiness with a decent off white head. Tastes nutty and malty. Fairly smooth. Nice but lacks something.
johndoughty (1692), cheslyn hay, West Midlands, England
Nov 1, 2008 Bottle with the TESCO label. Black with very little carbonation. Poured with a small head and had a lovely warming taste. Some spices and ginger were present plus traces of chocolate. Some roasted flavours also appear. A fine winter ale.
Papsoe (11073), Frederiksberg, Denmark
Oct 25, 2008 (Bottle 50 cl) Warm orangey brown with a reddish hue and a small, beige head. Sweetish hard roasted malt in the nose. Medium body, sweetish hard roasted or even lightly burned malt with a whiff of coffee and distinct ginger notes. Sweetish malt bitter finish. Not bad as such, but I’m not really sure that I like ginger in my Porter. 121008
Bragesnak (1456), Aarhus, Denmark
Oct 25, 2008 Aros Ølfest, Aarhus, DK.
Bottled, 241008.
Dark brown with small head. Aroma of roasted malts and coffee. Flavor is balanced sweet with rosted malt and with a nice tone of ginger
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