Saturday 30 September 2023
Wetherspoon Real Ale Festival 11 to 22 October
Monday 24 July 2023
Brewdog Black Heart 21st Century Stout
It's 4.1% vol and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, to be honest.
It's got a good, solid black colour and has very little appreciable head. Even though they have copied Guinness by adding a widget to the can. Never had a flat can of Guinness with or without the widget, but I digress. (Maybe how I poured it?)
There are harsh and bitter coffee tastes to it, which leaves a not particularly pleasant aftertaste on the palate.
I think there are also chocolaty hints, too, plus perhaps something else. Liquorish, maybe? I don't know, but it doesn't work well with the overall flavour, sadly.
In their promotional material they seem to be knocking Guinness for being old and boosting Black Heart for being new.
But it's all in the taste. If it tastes good, the age of the recipe doesn't matter.
However, what's better than Black Heart and also, perhaps, Guinness? Brew Dog Layer Cake Stout, which is a perfect pint of great, stout-hearted goodness!
Monday 12 June 2023
Peanut Butter Milk Stouts
I love peanut butter. I particularly like peanut butter whiskey, but especially with properly hot Jamaican ginger beer. Not ginger beer, but ginger ale.
But on to the peanut butter milk stout, plain and with strawberry jelly/jam.
Peanut Butter milk stout. There was definitely a strong peanut butter aroma from the beer. And it did have a peanut butter like colouration.
There was a peanut butter taste plus a strong, malty taste and a somewhat bitter aftertaste.
The Peanut Butter and Strawberry milk stout had a similar colouration. It tasted very similar to the peanut butter milk stout, but there was also a slightly sweet undertone that I attributed to the strawberry jelly content.
However, tin my opinion, the strawberry flavour was not strong enough to make any real headway through the stronger peanut butter flavour. If I were brewing this stout I'd certainly consider adding more strawberry jelly to the recipe because of this.
I'd have to point out that, although these beers are interesting and well worth seeking out, that they are not really to be considered as milk stouts, to be completely honest.
However, they are intriguing enough that I'll certainly be looking out for beers from Tailgate Brewery in the future.
To check out the beer range at Home Bargains use their store locator service https://storelocator.homebargains.co.uk
Or you can visit your website at https://home.bargains
From memory I think I paid about £1.49 a can.