Bottle-conditioned 750ml is effervescent hazed amber-gold with a permanent rocky head. Aroma hops manifest as mandarin orange, flowers, kiwi fruit, gooseberry, and lime, with faint grassy menthol touches. Yeast is lightly doughy and musty moderately phenolic (pepper, minerals) with an emerging dough and fabric staleness that becomes more apparent as it opens. Malt is toasty and honey-like with cracker-y bread crust touches.

In the mouth it’s soft and silky, malt is moderately sweet, acidity is low, bitterness is measured, and it finishes with some lingering doughiness and a touch of autolyzed yeast (mud and nuts) amid the green-leafy hoppiness. The aroma is pretty nice, but it could be more expressive and powerful, that punch is more missing in the mouth, where malt and hop are surprisingly dull, no doubt suffering from age. Why they would release this beer so long after bottling is beyond me. Let’s hope the 2016 hits shelves in a fresher state.