Now this is one hell of a big beer.
It’s a Doppelbock and it’s dark and sinister in your glass.
sitting all menacing and broody, the colour of chestnuts, and smelling of bruised apples, brandy and evil.
This may be a beer that’s out to take over the world.
It has an agenda and the agenda is to get everyone a bit drunk and make them all fall over so that it can stand above us laughing knowingly.
And it might just succeed because not only is this beer evil, it’s also delicious.
It begins with a huge toffee kiss, sticky and gooey and almost chewy, with spiky spices that tickle and a tamarind sourness around the edges.
There’s rum and raisin here too, lots of it, with the heat of the alcohol ramping everything up another notch as it warms your chest and fires your belly.
The hopping is brittle and astringent, citrus hovers about but it’s more about green leaves and woody, sappy pith than lemons and limes.
This finish is a long drawn out dry expanse burned through again by the alcohol.
Beautifully devilish, if this beer was to try and take over the world I for one would happily submit.