** This review has been updated here.**
This one MUST be special. My source set aside this actual bottle of beer for himself, but he was so amazingly nice that he set this aside for me, as he had already had it before. It appears that this beer is incredibly hard to get hold of, and you would think a beer that has this reputation would be produced in great quantity.
Do I even need to say this is a black beer? I mean, it's black, and I shouldn't have to justify it. The head is a nice, deep tan, and the aroma is a mix of chocolate, nuts, sweet liquor, oak, and some charred oatmeal.
First sip is very flavorful. What flavor? We have coffee and toffee and chocolate and oat. There's smoke and there's oak and there's sweet malt in my throat. Despite my sudden lapse into Dr. Seuss, I can say that this sip is absolutely brimming with lots of flavors. It's tasty, and I would imagine sipping it might be enough for the evening, but that's not my way - I must gulp.
Tip-in is slight carbonation tingle with a syrupy texture and sweetness with a bit of chocolate. Carbonation rocks the roof of the mouth while the lava of coffee and toffee with its burning oak and oatmeal churns under it all. It's a spectacle, and it's marvelous. The finish come along with a very sudden twist of bitterness and greater coffee with more of the syrup from the front-end.
Bottom Line: A thrill a second, the beer brings so much damn character that you can't deny it's rightful place among the best beers of its kind.
5.0/5