A friend gave me this a while back. It's been languishing in my fridge for about 6 months I think. It's apparently a limited edition, hence the fancy packaging, and is quite pricey if you can find it.
It's an ale blended from their Oatmeal stout, Velvet Merkin and Helldorado, a blond barleywine, with ginger and lime zest, aged in rum barrels. So yea...a lot going on there...
Virtually no head when poured, aroma of straight up rum, first sip tasted strongly of rum as did most of the sips that followed...the ginger and lime hardly makes an appearance here...I probably should have considered when and how to drink this beer before just opening it after having been out for fish n' chipsI(which was a nice well done surprise at a new local pub!) and a couple IPAs. The dark and stormy came off as very sweet and well...rummy. The taste actually reminded me of a dark rum drink I had in Bali back in may.
Sorry to say I couldn't finish this expensive gift and I have to figure out what to tell my buddy...just not my thing. I do like rum, ginger and lime but not in my beer.
I have a bottle of the Velvet Merkin in a fancy package that he gave me. Guess I should plan a tasting for that one...it's simpler though, an oatmeal stout.