Dark Star Porter Vintage 2010 (Bottle)

Brewed by Dark Star
Style: Porter
Horsham, England

Serve in English pint, Stem glass

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Sampled from bottle at Scopeys 2nd East Croydon Beer tasting, thanks to Leighton. Dark ruby red color, no head. Don’t smell much. Faint taste as well, decent though: Little bit sweet, lightly something roasty. Low carbo, low body.

Bottle at the 2nd East Croydon Beer Tasting, thanks to Leighton. It pours deep ruby, with a thin bubbly white film. The nose is red wine, berry, wood and light spice. The taste is chocolate, wood, caramel, light smoke, caramel, light roasted malt and cardboard, with a dry finish. Medium body and soft carbonation. Easy drinking for sure, but pretty unexciting.

UPDATED: OCT 19, 2011 Bottle at the East Croydon Beer Tasting, October 2011, thanks to me. Pours dark brown with a foamy, tan head. Mild roast aroma, some cocoa, faint earth. Very mellow flavor and damn good, some mild cocoa, medium roastiness, faint berries, some lightly burnt sugar, faint leafy bitterness. Medium bodied with fine carbonation. Light roast finish, mocha, faint dry cocoa, subtle berries. Very restrained and relaxed but still quite complex. Excellent beer.

500ml Bottle - Very dark brown with some red tinges when held to the light. Roasted malt, chocolate and coffee in the aroma. Rich taste with notes of coffee, plain chocolate, roasted malt and some slightly soapy hops. The finish is roastedjavascript: RadioSel(overall,15); and chocolatey and has a slightl tang to it.

A dark brown-black beer with no head whatsoever. Nose of chocolate and orange with a deep molasses. Later scent of tropical fruits and berries. A fairly bitter and roasted body with a hint of alcohol. Fairly sweet and thin bodied. For a bottle-conditioned ale (and there is some yeast in there) it has very little conditioning and is disappointingly flat. I think that perhaps the flavours could develop a bit better with aging but overall a disappointing bottle.

Bottled. Dark brown, minimal head. Aroma of coffee and overripe fruits. Mid sweet with medium body and rounded mouthfeel. Retrained hop rate give plenty of room for dark chocolate and figs. Low bitterness. Pleasantly edgeless and easygoing.

Something obviously went wrong during the bottling process. No conditioning at all. Great pity as you can just about tell that this would have been a fantastic beer. I would recommend you spend your money on something else.

500ml bottle from Utobeer. Aged in barrels apparently. Advertised as bottle conditioned, but not a huge amount of conditioning in the beer. Black/very dark brown colour with a thin beige head. Choc coffee aroma, roasted malts. Well structured aroma. A little thin in the mouth and on the swallow. Nice enough mocha flavours throughout including on the finish. Touch of lasting sting on the tongue on the finish too. It got better as it warmed up. The wood does give some structure to the swallow flavour. It has some slight vinous notes too. Like to have this on cask. Good intensity on the finish which is the best thing about this beer.