Southside
Independence Brewing Co.

I got this as a sample bottle from the brewery, and I really need to try it on tap.

It's incredibly dark but there's very little in the way of a head on this beer. That said, and knowing how the aroma of a beer comes from the head, this beer has a very strong nose. I know there's cardamom in it because they told me, although I wouldn't know the smell of cardamom if it jumped up and bit me on the chin. When I stick my nose into the glass, it shouts back at me 'ROASTED!!!', and I love that about a dark beer. It's kind of an indefinable roasted - not quite coffee, not quite chocolate, not quite anything, but very pleasant. I get the same sensation when I toss it into my mouth. I wish my taste buds were better at this sort of thing.

It could certainly have a better body. For a beer as powerfully flavoured as this, the mouthfeel should be more... shall we say, chewy.

I could definitely drink a couple of bottles/pints of this, but it's not a session beer for me. With a little tweaking of the recipe I think Rob and Amy have a good one here.

On tap at the DraughtHouse
Pours watery dark brown with little in the way of head. Smell is very odd. Strange fruity, chocolatey smell with an unpleasant chemical aroma. Taste is equally as bad with a thin, chemically, roasty sourness and a drying mouthfeel. I found it hard to find anything positive about this beer...