Vale Black Beauty Porter

500 ml bottle thanks to Casey. Pours a pure black with a medium light brown head. I was really surprised to see a bunch of light brown sludge on the cap and all over the inside of the bottle, it looked like melted chocolate...I was interested to say the least. The aroma was fairly light; some roasted malts, coffee and a tiny hop contingent. The taste was quite nice; a smooth and easygoing roasted malt, some light fruits make it through and a dry astringency in the finish. Very nice.

Cask at aberdeen Beer festival ... Deep black ... light roast nose ... Deep fruit roast ... little blackcurrent... lovely.

Pours almost pitch with a creamy tan collar. Aroma sweetish cooked sugar, faint roast. Some very meek watery roasted malt and D&B rootiness as in a mild shandy.Cocoa and singed cardboard. Low to zero carbonation. Come on, it’s not difficult to brew a half-decent dark roasty beer, but this just isn’t ticking the right boxes at all for me. Sometimes the real stuff isn’t as real as the dead stuff. Preferred the Carlton Cold.

Cask at Merton Summer Festival, September 2004 Going back through my travel log and Merton Beer Festival information tonight and picking up those that had escaped. Never one of my favourite Vale beers but nonetheless it’s fine enough. Pours pretty much black with little head to speak of. Dry roasted malty taste but a bit too thin and watery for me to really get much from. Had this again at the Nut Tree, Murcott, Oxon, 09-03-08 This tasted a much better and more rounded beer than I’d had before, it’s still quite subtle and at times a bit thin but there were some really nice well done roasted flavours going on here and nice coffee and cocoa flavours to balance things out score on this occasion is 3.3

Cask (Peterborough BF 2007) Almost black, no head. Sour malty taste, burnt and with a pleasant bitterness. Feels like it’s missing something.