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This is my new stab at the twelve stouts of Christmas from Bristol Beer Factory This time I’m trying the Chocolate Stout, a beer made with five types of malt and cocoa nibs.  Yum.

Chocolate Stout (5.0%) comes packaged in a 500mL bottle and opens with a medium hiss.  It pours dark brown with a medium-dense tan head which slowly settles to a few mm.

There are gentle aromas of coffee, dark chocolate, vanilla, and hints of dark sugar.

Taking a sip, you’re rewarded with a lovely thick mouthfeel and gentle carbonation.  Up front we get some sugary sweetness at the centre of the tongue, with a little roasty flavour coming through.  A little chocolate in the middle, which fades to a milk chocolate finish with a coffee aftertaste.  This chocolate flavour builds as you take further sips.

Part of me is expecting more flavour, having had some of the more rough and ready offerings in the series!  That said, it’s a perfectly drinkable beer.  Unlike some of the more intensely-flavoured beers out there, I could happily sink a few of these and not go mad.  I find myself readily topping up my glass, this beer strangely grows on you.

Rating: 3/5 (I sound like a broken record, but I bet this has more of an edge on cask)

My final review of the evening, I promise you I didn’t just chug all these today!  In fact, before you ask, no I didn’t have any beer at all today, so there.  Anyway, this is another beer from the Dram Shop, it was part of a haul that had a few of todays mini-reviews posted about them.  I put their kids through University!

Amarillo Single Hop (6.9%) comes packaged in a 330mL bottle, these single hop series have a coloured label for each – this one is royal blue.  It opens with a medium hiss, and pours orange with a small white head.  The aroma is of sweet toffee, grass, and peppery spice.  Some faint melon notes.

In the mouth, the beer has a medium mouthfeel and a gentle carbonic bite.  There’s an immediate tongue-coating dry bitterness, that is sweet at the edges of the tongue.  There’s melon, grapefruit and big tangerine in the body.  Absolutely delicious!  A light bitter/fruity finish rounds off this beer.  I don’t know whether I prefer this or the Nelson Sauvin now!

Rating: 5/5 (I might have to pokemon all the single hop series now, these are immense)

Seventh and penultimate mini-review!  Another Kernel Beer from the Dram Shop, I love that place.  This one was only a week old though.

Summit IPA (7%) comes packaged in a 330mL bottle and opens with a quiet hiss.  The beer pours orange with a loose, creamy white head.  The aroma is a large waft of grassy hops, lemongrass and melon fruit notes.

Taking a taste, there’s a thin body with light carbonation.  There are big fruity hop flavours that really hold in your mouth.  Melon, grapefruit, peach.  The finish is yet more fruit, what a fantastic drink.

Rating: 5/5 (Kernel really know how to knock out an IPA)

Sixth mini review!  Only two left, I promise.  I picked up this bottle from the Dram Shop a long time ago and it’s been spying on me from my fridge, I knew it’s number was up.  I’ve had another IBA before – by Dogfish Head.  And that was yum.  So a nice high bar for this one!

Indian Brown Ale (7.4%) comes packaged in the characteristic Kernel 330mL bottle and opens with a sharp hiss.  It pours dark chestnut with a fluffy tan head.  The aromas are big: bold grassy hops, hints of burnt coffee

The taste: there’s a thin mouthfeel, with a light carbonic bite to it.  There’s a really big dry coffee flavour up front, fading to dark sugar, and a lovely rounded spicy hop flavour.  There’s an excellent balance to this beer, which has a medium length finish of bitter hops mixed with sweet dark sugar.

Rating: 5/5 (lovely, I must be a fan of these IBAs then)

Fifth mini-review, and I always have  Rochefort 10 on my beer shelf (along with a La Trappe Quadrupel for that matter!).  I figured I’d make some notes along the way.

10 (11.3%) comes packaged in a 330mL bottle, and opens with a loud hiss.  It pours dark brown with a billowing off-white head.  There’s a strong aroma of booze-soaked dark fruits.

Taking a taste, there’s a thin mouthfeel with a definate carbonic edge to it.  There’s a strong flavour of Christmas pudding, vinous fruit, raisins, black cherries, all soaked in booze.  A long, spicy finish layered with warming alcohol wraps it up.

Can’t deny it – I really like this beer.  I love Trappist ales, yet to find one I don’t like, and the strong ones especially make me happy.  So this is yet another easy to drink, strong, tasty ale brewed by monks

Rating: 4/5 (glug glug glug, that was easy)

This is the fourth mini-review I’m rattling out here, but it’s a special beer.  I picked up this big bottle of Manchester Dubbel from the awesome Marble Arch in Manchester when visiting a mate.  I picked up a few in there, a Vuur & Vlam and a Tripel, I only have the Tripel left now!

As a friend was over, and we both love a dubbel, I thought I’d crack this open.

Manchester Dubbel (8.5%) comes packaged in a tall 750mL bottle, with a cork and wire cage.  The cork pops loudly!  The beer pours dark brown, with a marshmallow-esque giant tan head.  The aroma is toasty, dry roast grains, fragrant bitter hops.

In the mouth: wow!  The mouthfeel is medium, the carbonation medium.  The flavours are massive.  Burnt sugar, chocolate malt, a caramelly long dry grainy finish.  A lingering coffee aftertaste and warming alcohol.  I’ve not done this justice but this beer is absolutely delicious.  The flavours knock you for six, yum.

One of those times where you don’t want to open a beer because you suspect it’s going to be awesome and then it’ll be gone, but damn, sometimes you just have to rip them open and enjoy them for what they are.

Rating: 5/5 (I wish I’d bought another!)

The third mini-review of the current barrage, I picked up this Head Cracker at the Woodforde’s brewery shop in Woodbastwick, Norfolk last year after a pretty awesome week sailing with friends.  Never done that before!  Anyway, I as I’m sure everyone down there has, drank large quantities of Woodforde’s Wherry.  I made a point of bringing a few of their beers back and this is the stronger of those that returned with me.

Headcracker (7.0%) is packaged in a stout 500mL bottle and opens with a quiet hiss.  It pours copper with a small, fluffy head.  Not much on the nose, some gentle biscuit and cereal notes.

The taste is less than I’d expect to be honest from a beer of this strength: a thin mouthfeel with no real carbonation.  Flavours of dark fruit, sherry, clinging to the tongue with a little hop character in the finish.  A boozy background builds after a few mouthfuls.  I think this is probably the big brother of Wherry to be honest – you could easily drink plenty of this and not realise it, but for a beer of this style I’d rather see some intensity, theres some nice flavour there but not enough of it for me.

Rating: 3/5 (would love to give it a try on cask though)

I picked up this little beastie from the Dram Shop in Sheffield – not seen it before and always love a Marble beer.

Ginger Stout (6.5%) comes packaged in a 500mL bottle and opens with a quiet hiss.  It pours black with a dense tan head.

On the nose are aromas of roast malt, and a spicy ginger sweetness.  This is basically the last time you notice the ginger!

The mouthfeel is full-bodied with a gentle carbonic edge to it.  The flavour is of slick melted chocolate, black pepper, hints of burnt coffee and subtle fruit.  There’s a short, drying roasty finish.  Very nice.

Rating: 4/5 (Nice drop, but where’s the ginger? Probably for the best.)

I had a few beers on Saturday with a friend, but made notes on them as they were mainly new.  So here’s the first.

Old Foghorn is Anchor Brewing’s take on a barley wine ale.  The bottle claims that the beer is virtually handmade, from the first wort of an all malt mash and is dry hopped.

I’ve tried this beer before in the excellent Port Street Beer House in Manchester, in fact I tried someone elses, but I saw a bottle in the Dram shop so I had to pick one up.

Old Foghorn (8.8%) comes packaged in a 355mL bottle, opens with a loud fizz.  Produces a dense, thick cream head and pours a very attractive deep red colour.  There’s big toffee on the nose with a hint of biscuit.

Taste-wise, there’s a luscious thick body, big carbonic bite, and a prominent flavour of sticky toffee and hard-boiled sweets.  There’s a background of spicy hops in there and a warming, long sweet finish.

Wonderful stuff.

Rating: 5/5 (lovely.)

This beer is the second of the French Beers I have sitting on my shelf, and tonight seems to be the night to make a start on them.  Again the label is in French so best to defer to Olive’s description

Anosteké (Brasserie du Pays Flamand)

This beer comes from a really great brewery; I enjoy their main Bracine line of beers. Anosteké is more an IPA-style, where the additional hops give a good taste to it. They also brew Anosteké Brune, which you could think of as a Black IPA.

Anosteké (8%) comes packaged in a stubby 330mL bottle, the type you often see with some of the stronger Belgian blonde beers.  It opens with a *very* loud fizz and pours golden with a billowing white head, that sticks to the side of the glass as it subsides.  It reminds me again of a Belgian tripel; if I left the lid off without pouring it I think it would crawl out of the bottle, the dense moussy foam starts to crawl up the bottle.  Evidence of very heavy carbonation is also present in the form of a torrent of bubbles rising upward from the bottom of the glass.

The aromas are of very thick sweet malt, again almost similar to a tripel, there are light fruity hoppy scents mixed in there, with maybe some banana yeast character?

Rating: 5/5 (This manages to lift a lot of the concepts found in a tripel but then add some nice hopping and leave me impressed and wanting more! I might have to ask Olive for the Brune, I’ve always preferred a dubbel )