Abbotsford Invalid Stout

<i<Bottled. Black with beige head. Aroma of coffee and dark chocolate. Dry and roasty with light body and a hint of ash and metal. There’s loads of coffee, and a hint of syrupy sweetness rounds it off. Despite all other Carlton beers I’ve tasted being crap I find myself liking this solid beer.

Bottle from Melbourne. Pours a black colour with a good brown head. Aroma of roasted malt and roasted caramel with some chocolate. The flavour is smooth and sweet with roasted malt and caramel, some dark fruits, chocolate and coffe. Roasty sweet finish. Good but too much sweetness.

good to see a beer for sick people. the victorian equivalent of sheaf stout. vegemite aroma. very full in flavour - international roast, coagulated soy sauce. slightly heavy going

The beer with the big story. First about the beer: Pitch black coloured body with a decent brown head. Aroma of prunes, a bit of coffee and some roasted malt. Ligher Medium-bodied; Heavy prune, raisin and unripe pit fruit tastes with some roasted malt flavous ending bitter with a somewhat long finish. Overall, a decent beer, but not at the same level with even the most populars (Guinness, etc). Now the funny part: JonR888710, Haddon90 and I were in Melbourne, Australia when we were drinking this beer. We walked into a bottle shop downtown and asked the clerk about beers. He said that you could walk around downtown, drinking beer, as long as it was wrapped in a brown paper bag. So, we (being stupid Americans) agreed, bought the beer and proceeded to walk around carelessly drinking from our brown paper bags. We stopped and talked to locals and quickly found out that this WAS ILLEGAL, so we decided to go right back in the store and finish the beer as quick as possible. Nothing happened to us, but it was mildly entertaining during our first few days there. I sampled this beer from an 800 mL bottle in Melbourne, Australia on 03-June-2004.

Deep black colour, poor light tan head, no lacing. Coffee in the taste, lightweight body, toasted malt, burnt characters in the aroma, I like stouts, simple but drinkable.

Bottle. Roasted malt and coffee on the nose. Dry roasted malt on the palate. A little thin, but an easy drinking stout.

Perhaps it is invalid because it isn't really a stout? Its not a bad beer but it doesn't have the body or style of many others. It lacks a real character that some of its competitors have, such as subtle coffeesih aroma or strong mouthfeel. It is certainly better than the lagers though

5 for appearance cause the label is the silliest i've ever seen. bottle i saw said 5.2% so maybe theyve watered it down lately. it's almost black, headless, would be transparent if it wasn't black. low intensity brown sugar/licorice flavour. pretty crap but still a lot better than some of the "stouts" you get at some of the more clueless victorian brewpubs.