Friday 26 January 2018

Bring Out the Imp

Brewery: Alechemy Brewing Ltd
Supplier: Marks & Spencer

This is a special beer from this Scotish brewery. Though it doesn't say this on the ingredients list, this is an Imperial Oatmeal Stout - brewed with molasses and liquorice then fermented with a Belgian yeast and aged in côtes du rhône casks. I served this slightly chilled.
Appearance: A super thick black colour with bottle brown on the sides when held to the light. The head is a light tan colour and reasonably thick, but thins to a single layer of bubbles quite quickly. 
Aroma: Strong roasted and raisin notes, coupled with a hint of dish washer liquid and very faint traces of aniseed that I can only detect because I was searching for them.
Flavour: Sweet roasted notes on the front with some mint like fresh notes going into a herbal bitter tones coming in the back. This opens up to a fresh raspberry flavour on the sides of the tongue. 
Body: Very thick, good for the style, turning dry in the back. 
Aftertaste: The bitter herbal notes intensify, turning into a dry bitter wood note. There's a little bit of malt as well.

Overall: Therefore this gets a rating of 5, the bitterness gets a bit too much in the back and too dry, and there aren't many exceptional other flavours.

Price Range: I can't really remember, but around £3.00 for a 330ml bottle, an OK price, not fantastic and probably inflated because of the 10%+ alcohol as oppoesd to the taste. I wouldn't choose to get it again.

Food Pairings: I think the dry and bitter notes of this would go well with the fresh and salty notes of something like prawns or crawfish.


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