Old Smokey
Stonehenge Ales Limited [Bunces Brewery]

September 2004: Cask at The Cricketers, Ipswich. Black colour, moderate roasted malts aroma. Flavour is all roasted and smoked malts with some faint vinegary sidenotes. Very nice.

Hand-pulled pint in my local Wetherspoons Pub on 9th Oct 2013.

Not as smokey as I thought it would be, not as full bodied either: but OK none-the-less.

Pours a very dark ruby red/brown, almost black really, on top a deep creamy tanned head of level foam.

The nose and taste intermingled: over roasted malts gave a semi-burnt chocolate cake sort of smell and flavour with a smoked ham wrapped within the cake mix.

Body wise it lacked depth, but overall not a bad beer.

Transcribed from Notes of 30/10/2006, this was the 13th, and the very last, beer tasted at the Capitol, a JDW pub in Forest Hill, SE London, during the chain’s Full Moon Beer Festival. According to the brewery website, this ale purports to be a Porter, so here it goes:

A: nearly black, with dim red glows when seen against light - looking elegant; a dark-beige, foamy head settles down relatively fast, on top of an unknown carbonation status.
S: just as the name intends to inform, upfront there comes a flow of semi-sweet and smoky roastiness of black malts, while a fudge-like dark sugary touch stays firmly underneath.
T: sour-sweet dark malts and fruits approach together, suggesting dark dates and med-level of roastiness; then leading towards a soothing roast-nutty (or walnuts, to be more precise) undertone, where more satisfying bitter roasted barleys also linger. The finish has a lightly dryish and pleasantly bitter edge plus toffee's aftertaste, as well as being rounded in texture.
M&D: a healthy, softly carbonated real-ale texture remains throughout the drink, a sign that this ale is served absolutely at its prime and thus being greatly approachable; that said, the overall body falls slightly thin, esp. in the aftertaste. Not bad at all, this is an above-average Porter well worth a try.