Exeter Darkness

Brewed by Exeter
Style: Stout
Exeter, England

Serve in English pint

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Cask Handpump at the Fat Cat, Sheffield 16/01/2010 Roast aroma. Small beige head. Black fruity and a little rich on the palate with a hint of dryness in a crisp and bitter oyster roast finish.

Bottled. A black beer with a beige head. A smoky, fishy and fruity aroma. Light roast in the mouth. Quite mild and lacking any robust flavours. A bit flabby too. Just OK.

Cask, handpump @ The Powder Monkey, Exmouth, Devon.
Pitch black and viscous looking. Solid, creamy tan head sits atop like a dollop of chocolate mousse. The head lasts the length to muck up the glass in its wake. Lots of chocolate, smoke, ash, vanillin and liquorice root on the nose, quite assertive and well pronounced, with little nuances of smoked, cure meat, bovril and Vegemite. Velvety, silky and smooth in the mouth, full in body and very well rounded. Truckloads of deep, dark, chocolaty malt, milk chocolate and ovaltine sweetness, vegemite and burnt sugar and wood, some bonfire ash and bitter coffee beans. Swallow is thick, with lots of toffee, ash, and caramelised sugar, sweet and yet dry, balanced to a ’T’. Lingers so, so long, all the flavours just combine to one great meaty elixir that runs amok on the palate. This is sultry stuff. I stopped rating after this one and spent the afternoon People watching quaffing this like it was the last barrel on earth. Sublime!

Bottle 50 cl. Courtesy of Alice BS. Pours an opaque black with a small beige head. Hard roasted malt in the nose with a whiff of peaty smoke. Medium body, hard roasted malt, dark bitter chocolate and again discreet notes of smoke. Solid malt bitter finish. 051011

Bottle at Craig’s house. grass, brown, minimal head, light sweetness, oily feel, average carbonation, light body.

Bottle at home .. with stephen ... dark black ... big short lived foam tan head ... soft chocolate roast malt ... ligth fizzz ... good solid roast ... light coffeee ... big chocolate ... light sweetness ... very tasty ... little licorice in linger

Cask, Nottingham Fest ’10. Very dark brown brown with a thin beige foam. Aromas are figs and raisins with chocolate and berries. Earthy hops with damson and light spices. Flavours are sweet weetabix with citrus and medicinal notes. Herbal and spicy with dark chocolate bitterness. Decent.

BC from Darts Farm. Enough carbon dioxide, coal and mouldering leaf matter on the aroma to knock you sideways at first, but deep toasted nuttiness and morning-after bonfire emerging from beneath. Your hands actually smell like you’ve been standing next to a bonfire after you’ve handled a pint of this: bonus point. Pours thick and jet like ink with a massive, rocky tan bloom of head befitting of a Belgian. The level of fizz is initially eye-watering, but detracts nothing from the pungent, silky, pistachio-accented bonfire-and-bramble goodness swimming about beneath. Big, fizzy..and delicious.

Cask in the market porter. Alround rating: Big roasty burness, some molasses sweetness, seems a bit dusty, grassy hop comign through later. Not my style at all.