Dark Side Of The Moose (Ochr Tywyll Y Mws)
Purple Moose Brewery

Bottled in brown glass and delivered by a high end organic goods collective
Pours a very very dark brown body with good tan head
Aroma is treacle and chocolate malt
Flavour is smokey tea and charred rye toast

Cask at Erskine Arms Conwy.
Chestnut brown. Creamy dense tan head, very slowly shrinking with some lace. Aroma chocolate toffee. Taste bitter sweet balance. Very nice.

Cask. Dark amber with a tight head. Consistent lacing to the bottom of the glass.
Sweet toasted malt aroma. Light hop present.
An initial sweet taste is then dispelled by a bitter treacle flavour.
Wonderful cask conditioned feel.
Close to a porter whilst retaining it's English bitter label.

Look of amber/ brown, slightly see through. Decent head but like most Welsh ales dissipates very quickly. Pleasant malted barley aroma, quite inviting The taste is very bitter, a bit of coffee and dark syrup coming through but quite acrid, the finish ends up quite weak and thin. It tastes a bit like a cross between a porter and an ESB. Was okay but saw nothing special in it.

A: The beer is clear and very dark amber in color (brown when viewed from afar) with no visible carbonation. It poured with a quarter finger high off white head that died down a bit but left a wide collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Moderate aromas of roasted barley and dark malts are present in the nose.
T: The taste follows the smell and has balanced flavors of roasted barley and dark malts.
M: It feels nearly medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation. The roasted barley also contributes a touch of dryness.
O: This beer is quite malty and flavorful for an English Bitter.

Serving type: bottle

 

Pours a dark chestnut colour with a cream head. Aromas of roasted berries & malt. Tastes of toffee, biscuit, chocolate, spice & roasted berries. Medium body with a nice roasted finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gravity halfpint at the London Drinker festival. It was listed in the Porter & Stout category on the fest program, so I reviewed it as a Porter. The fact that here it's called a "dark bitter" would probably explain a couple of the complaints I had with it, so take that into consideration.

A: Deep, clear garnet body under a mini-mountain of tan froth. Great retention and lace for a gravity pour. Excellent.

S: Light coffee from the roasted malt, some dark fruit, and a touch of herbal hops. Rather fresh, but a little weak, too.

T: Smooth malt dominates, just as much bready as roasty. Coffee is faintly present, but not much at all. Some raisin and prune fruitiness shows up halfway through, and substantial hops close things out with dry bitterness. Ok.

M: Very creamy, frothy, lively medium body. Exciting for a cask ale.

O: The beer was good, but didn't live up to the epicness of its name. What beer could, though?

Cheers!

A - Pours with one finger of light brown foam on top of a clear, medium brown body. The foam settles at a moderate pace and leaves nice, thick lace.

S - Some earthy malt and aromas of brown sugar and molasses. Moderately spicy, musty hops with a little bit of roasted character.

T - Light, bready malt up front with brown sugar and dark chocolate. More dark bread in the middle with mild molasses notes. The finish is full of toasted bread and dry caramel as well as moderate spicy hop flavor and light bitterness.

M - Medium body, moderately low carbonation, and a dry finish.

D - Quite nice, the aroma is pleasant but the true malt character only comes out in the flavor. There is an excellent dark bread character that is complimented by the spicy hops. Very drinkable and quite complex for a beer of this strength.

500ml bottle from somewhere in Wales

Pours dark brown with off-white head with good retention that leaves several rings of patchy lacing. Aroma is roasted malt, some licorice.

Taste is roasted malt with some dried prunes, notes of licorice and noticeable hops with long lasting bittery aftertaste. Light-medium mouthfeel with moderate carbonation.

This beer seems to be a cross between a Porter and a Bitter, a very, very good and drinkable one.

Brown 500ml bottle best before Oct 09, drank and reviewed 7th Oct 09 (whoops).

Made with Welsh mountain water and brought back from Wales by my wife after walking up Mount Snowden!

It is labelled as a dark bitter, so no guessing its colour: It is in fact a deep hamogany brown, clear, bright and flawless in appearance. An off-white head sat on top. The head did fall away but a lot of lacing held in the glass, so the beer was in good condition for this review.

Toffee apples and malts are in the smell, both more pronounced as the beer warmed.

A real malty flavour, add a blend of hops, some summer orchard fruits and you get a really interesting and flavoursome beer. The beer has a yeast presence too, but the maltiness holds fort over everything else.

I liked the feel and overall taste of this beer, glad my wife bought home a bottle, even if she paid 'through the nose for it!'. I have had this beer in cask form, but that was during a drinking mission in Shrewsbury, no reviewing can take place while out on such evenings, it's the law.