A coffee-lovers dream, this classy Porter is infused with cacao nibs and El Limon Bourbon Guatamalen coffee beans.
Look: Dark brown with a medium beige head.
Aroma: Rich roasted malt and coffee.
Taste: Deeply roasted malt, dark chocolate, coffee and vanilla balanced out with a little sweetness.
Verdict: Rich, dark, complex, smooth and sophisticated. That’s enough about me, now drink this beer, because it’s absolutely wonderful.
Temptation is a Russian Stout; a style that was exported to Imperial Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Crystal malt, amber malt, black malt and roast barley in generous quantities generate a deep black colour and flavours to match. Roast bitterness, coffee and liquorice notes combine in a velvety rich malt texture. A full and sweetish body is balanced by traditional Goldings hops.
Surprisingly refreshing and amazingly full-bodied for a 7 percenter, with big warming roasted malts, stewed fruits and red berries, dark chocolate and toffee.
Look: The beer pours jet black in the glass, with lots of lacing and medium carbonation.
Aroma: Intense aromas of roasted malts and cereals, chocolate and hops invite you to dive in.
Taste: A lovely rich roasted flavour with red berries and good bitterness the hops to make this a very refreshing beer.
Food Pairing: Roasted malts work brilliantly with chocolate. Try it with a warm chocolate pudding for a sticky sweet and dark treat.
Fire is made with smoked malts and infused with chipotles – smoke-dried jalapeno chillies – for seriously flavoursome, smokey-sweet beer.
Aroma: Big, big aromas of smoke and chilli plus some sweet caramel.
Look: Fire Rauchbier pours dark gold with a nice white head.
Taste: Smoked wood and caramel before the heat of chilli kicks in; heat that gradually builds before reaching a plateau after a few sips, but never dominates the smokey sweetness.
Food Pairing: This firecracker of a beer demands to be paired with authentic Mexican food. Try it with a selection of tacos for fireworks in your mouth.
Verdict: An absolute scorcher; sweet yet fiery – what a mouthful.
Originally produced for #collabfest14, this collaboration is subtle in its smokiness and instead focuses on chocolate and liquorice thanks to East Kent Goldings hops.
Look: This Imperial Porter, brewed with smoked barley, pours black with a tan head and displays small amount of lacing.
Aroma: Bitter chocolate, liquorice, coffee grounds and a hint of smoke.
Taste: You get all those flavours with the addition of blackberry and vanilla, softly carbonated and nicely balanced with the smoke – which complements but never dominates.
Food Pairing: Pair this beer with smoky food to avoid a clash of flavours. It makes an excellent accompaniment to a bacon sandwich.
Hel & Verdoemenis (Hell and Damnation), inspired by the old English style, and packs loads of sweet dark fruit and brown malts in one Hell of an Imperial Stout.
Look: Dense and jet black with a frothy, off white head and fine carbonation.
Aroma: Dark, bitter chocolate, coffee and syrup sweetness, spicy notes and some dark fruit.
Taste: More bitter chocolate and roasted coffee plus sweet dark fruit like figs, with some biscuit feel underneath. Thick and full-bodied with good alcohol burn that fades to a drier, spicier, hop finish.
Verdict: Damn this is good. We’d walk through Hell for another.
Beautiful coffee and coconut porter made with golding hops.
Look: Black beer with a beige head.
Aroma: Coconut, caramel and fruity hops.
Taste: Lots of coconut, which gives way to roasted malts and then a nice fruity, hoppy coffee finish.
Verdict: This beer wouldn’t be any bigger on coconut if it started firing them at you a cannon. Fortune favours the brave when it comes to flavour combinations, and this one has really paid off for the brewers at Uiltje.
A collaboration with Basqueland Brewing Project. A scrumptious imperial stout bursting with notes of coffee and chocolate. A generous helping of oats and a hint of brown sugar makes this stout exceptionally smooth and gives it a sweet toffee-like finish.
‘Divide and Conquer’, with Amarillo and Simcoe hops and late-hopped with Saaz, comes packed with Brett and chocolate and caramel malts for an intense BA stout.
Look: Jet black colour with a small beige-tan head that lasts nicely.
Aroma: Sweet forest fruits – plums, figs and berries – plus bitter dark chocolate and some peated whiskey notes.
Taste: Intense, yeasty and complex the Bretting, with loads more fruit plus banana and raisins on a bed of rich malts and syrupy boozy sweetness. Really full-bodied with roasted coffee beans and chocolate bitterness in the close.
Verdict: The almost leathery effects of the Brett will become stronger with age. This may Divide its drinkers into lovers and haters but our hearts have been Conquered yet again by de Molen – we love it.
Thick, syrupy sweet, smokey and malty – this Kees and de Molen collab is smooth and enjoyable – just like a Swiss ice skater.
Look: Pours dark mahogany brown, with a gently foaming off-white head.
Aroma: Sticky syrup and fruit like figs with sweet malt base with orange accents.
Taste: More dark fruit, thick and rich toffee and caramel with some smokiness in the background. Good boozy burn.
Verdict: Lovely smooth, enjoyable stuff – just like ‘Frick’ (Werner Groebli) and ‘Frack’ (Hansruedi Mauch), the Swiss skaters, themselves.