Black Beauty
Vale Brewery Company

 

Canned in a little stubby 330ml crafty craft can and delivered as part of the Beer52 Home Counties pack.
Pours a jet black coloured body with thick tight tan head
Aroma is blackjack chew and Barney McGrew
Flavour is mEUDJDI coffee chewing tobacco and liquorice cream

Cask. Ebony in colour. Beautiful tight head with lacing.
Roasted malt aroma. Fruity - prunes and dates.
Sweet. Rum and raisin flavour.
Smooth, filling and highly drinkable.
Loved it.

 

 

On cask at Glouster Arms in Oxon.

Poured a deep black with a dark tan head with fantastic retention. The aroma was subdued but featured some malt notes, rasin and a bit of esters on warming.

The flavor is dominated by a superb nutty-ness up front, backed by some strong caramel notes (around 40L). On warming these notes give some room to black patent roast and more raisin flavors. There is a nice backbone of firm bittering, more so even compared to many American counterparts.

There is a substantial medium-high body with good viscosity but not cloying. The firm bittering keeps the body from bogging down the beer. I was pleased to see dark beer wrestling cask space away from the thousands of bitters usually out and this was a fine example to argue for increasing that trend.

Sampled at the Cambridge Beer Festival 2008.

Appearance: near opaque, dark brown

Smell: molasses and roast

Taste: light roast flavors, no caramel to speak of, some coffee. not bad.

Mouthfeel: light-medium body, good carbonation

Drinkability: drinkable

This is a bottle-conditioned ale, brewed in a process conforming to the German "Reinheitsgebot", so states the label. BB June 2006, served cool in a jug.

A: ebony to black hue, coming with a super effervescent, HUGE tan head, shaped like a humongous souffle and sustaining pretty well; lively carbonation as far as I could manage to see through.
S: aromatic dark fruits and hops dominate the nose; on top of a lighter malty body, reminiscent of licorice, black sugar, and faint hints of coffee beans and roast nuts. Overall, the note is so very mild and not full-bodied, but not bad.
T: roasted, bitter-sweet flavour of dark malts dances on the tongue, gradually introducing a lovely taste of full-flavoured roast walnuts, charred wood-chips, black filtered coffee with its lightly sour-bitter edge, as well as a residual sour-sweet taste of dark prunes. A lively hop flavour hides well in the back, serving as a balancer to the malt entry. Lingering but moderate bitterness attaches to the deep end of the tongue with hints of root-herbs (e.g. licorice), and rounds off the palate elegantly.
M&D: the mouthfeel is consistently soft and soothing, plus a medium body and balanced flavour. Although it's not a full-flavoured and full-bodied porter as I'd prefer, this one is quite balanced and quaffable. A nicely-made real-ale-in-a-bottle.

(cask) quite likd this. Oaty, toffee/caramel sweetness, roasted, mild bitterness. Some mild acidity gives it almost a refreshing edge. Light bodied to be sure, but enjoyable, NIce soft approachable cask porter, a little too silky smooth at times however, but not bad.