Cellar Notes - Thomas Hardy

2004 Vintage / Tasted August 2007 (15/20)
Unremarkable to look at; tan chocolate brown, slightly murky with no head to speak of. Massively sweet and powerful nose of cooked sugary malts, toffee and sweet spices. Palate is absolutely as anticipated. Huge sweet malts, huge sugar kick, some bitterness from the substantial alcohol. The malt impact outweights the abv but I wonder if this will change as the beer develops. Very young and primary as I’m not seeing any secondary development or aged notes. Dark malts and bitter aniseed to finish. All a bit overwhelming for me and I found the beer harder to drink as it warmed up (and subsequently got thicker). If you ever needed to convince a sceptic that beer needs to be aged throw ’em a bottle of this beer - it’s crying out for extended cellaring.