Pours a deep brown to nearly black with garnet highlights when held up to light. It has a nice creamy about 1 finger tan head with some nice lacing. Nose is pretty much only roasted malts. Flavour is very much the same. Hardly any hops, and a lot of dark roasted malts. It’s reasonably sweet, and there’s almost a hint of hop bitterness int he finish for a second, it’s hard to say. It’s very smooth drinking, but not overly thick or chewy, but not exactly watered down either.

Bottle, November 2007. The blackness and roasted malt make this seem more of a stout; it does not as closely resemble a porter. Sadly, as either a porter or a stout, this does not come close to Tsarina Katarina or the spectacular John By. The mouthfeel is remarkably thin and the taste is watery; there is coffee in it. The roasted coffee, chocolate aroma are likely its best feature.

Courtesy of matt7215. Very nice chocolate and coffee aroma. Some lightly toasted/roasted malts and cocoa. Beautiful aroma. The body is dark brown to black and holds a lasting, thumb thick, mocha head. Much more roast bitter than the aroma indicates, still nice. Expected a dash more chocolate notes, but it’s not exactly absent. Maybe becomes ever so slightly and metallic toward the far finish, but it’s not terribly distracting. Overall pretty tasty.

Dark brown in colour, thin beige coloured head, light patchy lacing. The aroma is roasty, light coffee, some chocolate, cookies and an underlying sourness. The flavour is a bit light, some very light roast, some chocolate, sourness near the end. Thin mouthfeel, light body, medium carbonation. Finishes thin, astringent, acidic.<br /><br /> Many samples over 4 months and initially I quite enjoyed this. The low score is because this didn’t hold up at all. The final few bottles where drain pours because they were so sour. A shame really.<br /><br /> <i>341ml bottle from the LCBO in Peterborough, Ontario.<br /> Opened on January 5, 2008.<br /> No date.</i><br />

From my backlog. Nearly opaque pour with a decent head and lacing. Very hard water used to the point that I thought it was mineral. Slightly sour and an odd malt bitterness. Very odd. Strange sweetness that gave me the impression of fermented dates with a bit of salt. A beer that should be beaten with an ugly stick.