UPDATED: AUG 29, 2023 Bomber from Cask, Pimlico. Near black. Nose of toffee, fruity esters and aniseed. Thin body. Fennel and dark malt flavours with some tangy prunes.

UPDATED: NOV 16, 2020 Bière forte foncée et épicée de 8,2 % abv et 20 ebu, brassée à Belmont. Aromatisée avec gingembre, cardamome, graines de paradis, anis étoilé. Mon exemplaire, en 62,5 cl capsulé, était à plusieurs années après sa date. Couleur noir intense, à l'opacité quasi totale. Mousse brun moyen, soyeuse, stable à 3 mm. Arômes de chicorée, vieux lambic, prunes mûres, pointe de poivre noir. 1ère bouche sur un lambic trempé à l'anis .. Arrière-bouche qui donne du fil à retordre ! 2ème bouche avec poivre, piment doux et chicorée Arrière-bouche plus polie que la 1ère Longueur qui fatigue le peuple, même quand il est patient .. et confiné. Jambes fines, courtes, collantes sur la hauteur Levure d'ale anglaise, très basique Alcool de son niveau, mais totalement inefficace sur les saveurs, et pour tout dire inutile dans pareille mixture .. autant faire une bière de 5 % ... Finale qui me voit content de finir ces 62,5 cents CONCLUSION : le spot était complètement aveugle, il a jeté les épices au hasard dans le brassin en espérant qu'elles donnent quelque chose .. Pas de chance ... le hasard ne fait pas partie de la bière !! (1/2/2/2/4)

bottle @ home dark brown with brown head cream, milk chocolate, spices, coffee, wood, caramel, licorice, butterscotch light sour, wood, passito, light astringency, well balanced, raisins, blueberries

Bottled 650ml. -from Za Popen’t Ljubljana. Dark brown/almost black coloured, medium sized cappucchino head, roasty nose with whiff of berries. Moderate malty, mild roasty, caramel, berries and spices with touch of chocolate and cherries. Also some spices and alcohol in the finish. Decent.

UPDATED: DEC 15, 2015 Dark brown color with beige head. Aroma has spices and dark fruits. Taste is definitely on the sweet side with spices and molasses. Overall it’s a nice spiced stout but nothing special.

Bottle 66cl / Botella 66cl. @ Cervezorama 2.0. A: Dark brown / Marron oscuro. T/S: Malts, licorise, chocolate, slighly hoppy and spicy / Malta, regaliz, chocolate, ligeramente a lupulo y especiado.

750ml bottles (thanks FatPhil). Very dark brown color. Small size, brown head, stays. Malty, alcohol, chocolate, roast, hops in aroma. Sweet, metallic, roast, malty taste. Malty, metallic aftertaste. I don’t like that metallicness mixed with malts, but chocolate is nice. Messy brew.

660ml bottle (Alus Celle, Riga)
This is too sweet. But I like it. Gently spicy, I think I get something clovey that gives some bite to the slightly treacly sweetness. Looks beautiful, black, and with a large persistent tan head. Again, sweet taste, but everything is so well balanced, and it’s not heavy. Some gentle burntness, some treacle, again there’s a nice spiciness. Says 8.2% on the bottle, I don’t believe that. This slips down like a nice full 6.0%. Just taken top-ups from Anna and Marduk - I’m lovin’ this, and they ain’t. Finish gently burnt, but no harshness. Love the blue and black berries that crispen up the otherwise sweet malty taste.

Californian spice beer; probably a vintage bottle of a few years old, but as is often the case with Americans, no date is mentioned anywhere. Very dark and somewhat hazy burgundy colour, bordering on black, under a light brownish beige, moussy, stable head. The aroma shocks me at first: complex alright, but everything but pleasant. My nose is attacked by a mixture of burnt paper, damp cellar, wet cardboard, sewer water, earth and a ton of spices, varying between rotting ginger root and mouldy cardamom seeds... Other impressions include bitter chocolate, cigar tobacco, brown rhum, bell peppers, caramel, peanuts, brambleberries, raisins, cedar wood, coffee liqueur and indeed an ethereal hint of star aniseed which becomes more prominent and more aromatic as it warms up. With such an exaggerated amount of spices combined with mouldy off-flavours, I hesitate to take a sip... Taste is more bearable, yet intense: candied fruit sweetness in onset, a bit syrupy even, candied dates, banana, overripe pear, with a strong, complex, resinous spiciness coming up quickly and dominating the rest of the palate; the ginger, cardamom, grain of paradise (reminiscent of coriander seed) and star aniseed are all discernible, but admittedly I’d have more trouble identifying them if they weren’t explicitly mentioned. Anyway, very, very aromatically spiced indeed, on top of a thick, deep, chocolatey malt sweetness, full and creamy body and hints of roasted, ’cold coffee’-like bitterness; the initial candied sweetness lingers a bit in the finish, where the aromatic spices keep persisting as well with a drying, very resinous effect, along with some spicy hop bitterishness, lingering but soft roasted bitterishness and a fair deal of warming, liqueur- or rhum-like alcohol. I was horrified by the off-flavours at first, but they luckily completely receded after a while, making this ale more balanced and more attractive. Still, an overdosis of spices, as is clearly the case here, is something I have difficulties with; I have encountered the same ’spice bomb’ effect in some Wallonian beers as well as a few other Americans, and I am convinced these beers would benefit from a bit less. All things considered, I still managed to enjoy this once I got used to it, the rich chocolatey maltiness is very satisfying and the damp cellar and mould odours which attacked me at first, were probably due to bad storage in the online shop where I bought it, so I’ll give it an above average rating nonetheless.

Bottle. Dark brown colour with a beige head. Aroma is citrus, ginger, cinnamon, licorice, star anise, roasted malt. Flavour is sweet, citrus, ginger, cinnamon, licorice, star anise, roasted malt, sugar, chocolate. OK beer. KRS 150814.