Northern Rivers Migration Dark Ale
Northern Rivers Brewing Co.

Pours a dark red-tinged mahogany colour with very generous beige head. Head looks thin though, densely-pakced bubbles with very little lace - all fizz and no substance. An okay-looking dark ale, but nothing special.

Very pleasing on the nose. Dark, but sweet, with brown sugar, mild coffee notes and some dark fruit, raisins and some preserved lemon. Mild cinnamon and ginger spice lying slightly dormant at the back. Impressive winter warmer nose, treads the line between sweet/sour/spicy (with its three legs).

Taste is an odd one, hmmm let's see... Taste is quite roasty from the start with dark chocolatey malt, slight bitter twang that steadily turns sour by the mid-palate, giving off notes of underripe cherries and red wine vinegar. Not puckering though, just the flavours are there. Roastiness returns for an encore, ascerbically bitter at times with ground coffee and a hint of charred meat. Flavour is maintained well through its peaks and troughs - although I'm not really won over by them.

Decent body, a lot of foaminess in the mouth. Goes down pretty well, yeah not bad.

It is a decent drinking beer but I just find it underenjoyable flavour-wise.

A - Pours a dark brown colour with a big fluffy beige head into a pint glass. Ruby red tints when held up to light.
S - Some slight bitter chocolate aromas with some dark fruit hints.
T - Chocolate also comes through on the taste with the dark fruit flavours a lot more noticeable.
M - Quite full bodied with a medium carbonation.
D - A nice beer indeed, my favourite from these guys so far. Wouldn't session it but I could see it being a regular.
More like a porter in my opinion but whatever.