The nose leapt out with smoke, tar and smouldering embers (waking up the ‘danger’ zone of the cortex); it was also briny, with minty humbugs, some kind of green leaf and vanilla. The palate was described as “Massive!” and “Volcanic” – ash, liquorice, tar and salt, with wild boar sausages and something lovely and sweet hiding away, like a ballerina in a group of miners. Water hardly dented the nose – sweet-cured bacon, diesel exhaust and molasses. The palate seemed sweeter – chocolate in among the smoke and a lavender after-taste. One of the founders, Donald Johnston drowned after falling into ‘burnt ale’.