Black Jack Porter
Flack Manor Brewery

Cask. Very deep brown with a thin tan head. Lacing is apparent.
Smells of light liquorice.
Tastes malty with dark toffee.
On the thin side.
Middle of the road porter.

Half pint (slightly short measure) at 'spoons Counting House in Glasgow. Peaty coloured beer with its slightly reddish hue and an offwhite head. The nose combines a rather generic sweetness with roasted malt. The taste begins very sweetly for aporter before the roasted malt gently asserts itself as the sweetness falls away. This is very pleasant, but feels a tad lightweight.

Purchased in a wine shop in Romsey, the town where the brewery is based; coming in a 500ml brown bottle, bottle-conditioned. BB 01/02/2012, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: deeply dark brown in colour, coming with rather mild carbonation (for a bottle-conditioned ale) and a thin fluffy off-white head.
S: if you ask me, I’d say the initial impression of the aroma is reminiscent more of a Dark Mild than of a Porter, for the nutty and black sugary notes seem to outweigh roasted maltiness on balance; a very fine touch of dark fruits and refreshing herbal notes stay in the background, backed by Chinese black sugary grassy jelly. A closer sniff would however reveal a bit more bitter-sweet roasted malts, like chocolate malts or the equivalence, and more sour-ish fruitiness. Refreshing and well-integrated.
T: the light-bodied foretaste is semi-roasty bitter-sweet, with lightly sour dark fruits and a bit of stale notes follow, backed by quite an abundant feed of black sugary maltiness, while bitter hops manifest slowly at the rear of the palate, until the dryness of roast malts as well as of hop bitterness develops to render a dried black-tea-leafy and burned-nutty undertone, quite like how the back label describes this ale. The finish seems to build on the above and go on two layers, with the sweet herbal tunes flowing lightly on a rather settled and deep layer of roastiness… or should I describe it as three-dimensional? Quite.
M&D: the palate remains refreshing at the moderate level of carbonation, the body is lighter than medium (or as far as 4.6%abv. is concerned), and the overall drinkability is really really good. I heard that this ale in its cask-conditioned form has just won the Bronze medal at the SIBA South East Beer Festival. A worthy winner? I suppose time is due to try the cask version, based on its decent performance in the cask-conditioned form.