One of our homebrews to the test: it's, in principle, similar to "Date Night Challenge" that I tasted on 6 November for the first time. It proved to be unbalanced due to its steep alcoholic punch. I'll retaste it soon to see if any development has ameliorated the taste profile. Now, this brew has less date and ended up with a less arrogant ABV of 8.0 %. We also tuned it more Christmassy with apple mash (from our own summer cottage garden, of course), a decent amount of cinnamon and brown sugar. The carbonation is first too excited as it pushes froth out of the bottle like there's no tomorrow. Once the eruption settles, I manage to pour the beer in the glass. The beer pours muddy, very deep dark brown. A cream-colored, tiny-bubbled head emerges on the surface, grows two fingers tall when poured extremely carefully, and eventually dissipates to a cute froth ring wafting on top. The fragrance is almost numb: I'm getting a mere roasted rye malty aroma and even that is weak. The taste certainly offers apple mash, moderately sour as the story goes. Dark malt still displays a distinct albeit restrained roasty twist and faint licorice. Date is quite difficult to detect if I didn't know it was there -- now that I know and look consciously for it, it's depictable. Cinnamon is absent, unfortunately. The body is medium. The beer finishes with fruity dark malt with a faint roasty wisp and slightly sour apple nectar. Licorice remains oppressed, just like before. Cinnamon has obviously decided to stay camouflaged all the way as I can't spot it at all. The aftertaste is waiting for the Santa Claus for some time to descend through the chimney and share presents to the well behaving tastebuds. The mouthfeel is medium-strong, autumnal and a bit dry as well as shows its distant tart side. Generally speaking, I find this basically a decent fruity Stout but unfortunately the Christmassy intention fails.