Gunners Porter
Hop Stuff Brewery

Purchased from UTOBEER recently, coming in a 330ml slim brown bottle, bottle-conditioned; bottled on 08/11/2013, BB 08/05/2014, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass. Notes: according to the back label, this beer is brewed using roasted and chocolate malts, added with British Pilgrim hops, and US Willamette hops so as to add extra spicy notes.

A: pours a very dark brown colour with a fluffy dark beige head retreating fast to a thin sheet, on top of very faint carbonation.
S: bitter-sweet, roasted malts and pear-ish fruit esters abound upfront, while dark sugary and liquid chocolatey notes lag behind; given a good swirl, alc. creeps up along with more overripe fruit-like esters, added with very light notes of dried berries and even raisins. All in all, unbalanced and pretty estery, IMO.
T: the foretaste is lightly spicy, bitter herbal, and peary-estery at the same time, with roasted-nutty and dark stone-fruity malts forming a decent bedrock to carry through the other flavour elements; soon leading towards the finish, where vividly the earthy/spicy touch of Willamette is felt at the rear of the tongue, as well as a considerable level of roastiness and hop bitterness which together lend an extra chewy mouthfeel. Also, fortunately the alc. feel is nowhere to be felt.
M&O: a bit quiet on the carbonation, though a little bit of sparks does make itself felt at the end of each sip. At 7.4%abv., I’d say the body is tuned pretty decently, not heavy and, as a result of good attenuation, the beer doesn’t taste too sweet or heavy either. All in all, a hit and miss beer in a glass. I’d love to try this beer freshly served on cask, to get to know what really is meant to be delivered. In this bottle-conditioned form, I’m afraid the bottle-conditioning has brought some unexpected influence just as it does to the other product from the same brewery I tried yesterday, the Renegade IPA.