So, after punishing a stone 13th anniversary, I really wanted this to be something beautiful to compliment the glory that was the previous beer. I was a tad disappointed. Not that this is a bad beer, in fact, it’s quite the fine ale… It’s just not overly impressive.

The beer pours a nice deep brown/black, and has a fair tan head. It smells faintly of booze and complex malt sweetness. The taste on the otherhand is of heavily roasted malt. We’re looking at chocolate malt, and chocolate rye. Very very dark, and very bitter. A little goes a hell of a long way. Its got a great bitter character, but it lacks that oomph which would give it some true reknown. It really could use some vanilla, or even some lactose. It needs some sweetness! While this has some very dark chocolate characteristics, I was hoping for more. Amanda (my wife) and I agree, its good, but it could be a lot better with some sweetness.

7/10
-brian