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Smokin Bees Whisky Honey Smoked Porter – ABV 10%

smokin bees

Billed modestly as a classic porter with smoky overtones of a single malt whiskey, Smokin’ Bees has a honey sweetness and floral hints to a roast malt backdrop.

Look: Black pour with brown head.

Aroma: Sugary sweet with roasted malts. You can really sense the 100kg of wild flower honey added at the end of the boil, which gives it a beautiful sweetness and floral notes.

Taste: More sweet honey and toffee, plus smoked malts and some spicey accents

Food Pairing: We’d never suggest drinking beer this strong for breakfast, yet we can’t help thinking about pairing it with pancakes, smoked bacon and maple syrup.

Verdict: Delicious heavy sweet beer with artwork of bees smoking cigarettes by Nomad Clan. Part of Northern Monk’s Patrons project – it’s like no imperial porter you’ve tasted before.

Blacklight Banana Imperial Stout – ABV 9.2%

This collaboration between Siren and Garage Project is a seriously-smooth drinking imperial stout with aromas of banana and chocolate.

Look: Dark black with a tan head.

Aroma: Banana and chocolate with rich dark molasses.

Taste: A creamy mouthfeel and flavours of malt, banana and treacle combine to give a slightly burnt bitterness to balance out the sweetness.

Food pairing: A great beer for drinking with desserts. Try pairing it with the burnt, creaminess of a creme caramel.

Verdict: Blacklight Banana was brewed as part of the 2016 Rainbow Project. We just wish Siren had brewed more of it.

Hercules Hold Scotch Ale – ABV 8.5%

Hercules took its Hold on us at first sip: it’s sweet and sharp with Belgian malts and Candi sugars aged in oak barrels for three months.

Aroma: Dried fruit resting on a malty backbone

Taste: The beer has had a couple of doses of Brett in the brewing (farmhouse yeast, and in a beer blended in before the barrel ageing), so it has some sweet and sharp flavours you wouldn’t normally expect a Scotch Ale.

Verdict: We’ve seen Hercules Hold referred to variously as a Scotch or Belgian ale, a confusion that must surely be the natural result of a really unique beer. But no matter what you call it, it’s is a treat.

Food Pairing: Try it with blue cheese for a salty-sweet flavour combo.

Mexicake Imperial Stout – ABV 11%

When it came time to brewing something big and dark, Tempest had just one thing on their mind: cake.

A beer that tasted like a delicious, delectable chocolate cake… how about a Mexican chocolate cake?

Imagine taking a rich, boozy imperial stout, and then infusing it with fresh vanilla beans, high-quality cocoa, Ceylon cinnamon, Chipotle chillies, and Mulato chillies.

Blend it all together, and what you get is a complex and delicious beer with a rich, full mouthfeel, a touch of sweetness the vanilla, ground spice aroma the cinnamon, a touch of fruitiness the Mulato, and a little heat and smoke in the finish the Chipotle.

Schwartzwalder Kirschtorte – ABV 7.2%

German for Black Forest Gateau, this brown-black beer is lighter bodied than a traditional stout or porter but has intoxicating cherry and chocolate notes.

Aroma: Swirl it around in the glass to release the heavenly aromas of cherry, forest fruits and dark chocolate.

Taste: Instead of being over-sweet, the cherry sourness is carefully balanced with roasted malt and subtle notes of chocolate, giving an easy drinking beer. A dry, slightly bitter finish complements the aromas of fruit, to leave you wanting more.

Food Pairing: This beer is the perfect accompaniment to cold game pie – or for the full Schwartzwalder Kirschtorte experience try it with few squares of good quality dark chocolate.

Kraken Coffee Stout – ABV 7.4%

This monster is made with cold-brewed coffee, but features a subtle creaminess to add to warming roasted malts that makes it stand out other coffee stouts.

Look: Kraken Coffee Stout pours with a nice light brown head and subtle carbonation.

Aroma: Juts like a latte with three sugars in it.

Taste: There’s none of the suggested sweetness, just lots of roasted malt and coffee.

Food pairing: It works really well alongside the creaminess of an ice-cream or pannacotta. Feeling adventurous? Try pouring it over vanilla ice-cream like an affogato.

Verdict: This Kraken is a beast we would happily face again.

Figgy Bastard Imperial Stout – ABV 10%

Beer made with figs aged in red wine barrels for an Amaretto tingle. You’ve got better willpower than us if you can wait until Christmas to drink this.

Look: Figgy Bastard pours jet black with a tan head.

Aroma: Dried fruit, chocolate and amaretto.

Taste: Sweetness of figs and dates, with a lovely contrasting sourness that prevents it becoming too cloying. Lovely stuff.

Food pairing: If you can keep your hands off it until Christmas Day it will go down a storm with your mince pies and Xmas pudding.

Salted Caramel Quadrupel – ABV 13%

Salted… Caramel… Quadrupel. The mere utterance of those three words in the same breath is enough to get us salivating in anticipation.

Look: The beer pours a slightly orange brown with a big frothy head.

Aroma: Unsurprisingly, this delivers lots of salted caramel on the nose.

Taste: Salty sweet caramel and toffee, with dried fruit the yeast and warmth the alcohol. Unique.

Food Pairing: This beer is practically a pudding in its own right. Try pairing it with the saltiness of an aged gouda like Raypenaer.

Bloed, Zweet & Tranen Smoked Stout – ABV 8.2%

Rich and luxurious, this De Molen stout’s smoky caramel sweetness immediately brings to mind the peat of a Laphroaig whisky.

Aroma: Malt and that peaty smoke, toffee and chocolate.

Taste: The smokey sweetness is nicely balanced with flavours of roasted malt, chocolate and caramel to give a beer that’s extremely drinkable.

Food Pairings: This beer is big on flavour, and demands strong flavours to match. Try it with a few squares of dark rich chocolate.

Verdict: De Molen love ageing beer in spirit barrels, and Bloed, Zweet & Tranen (Blood, Sweat & Tears) is a perfect example. You can taste the hard work and care that has gone into it to give it its name.

Red Eye Flight Mocha Porter – ABV 7.4%

Made with Brazilian coffee beans for an espresso-kick aroma, but with silky chocolate and red fruit notes to create a balanced and very drinkable Porter.

Look: The beer pours jet black with a lovely coffee coloured head.

Aroma: Red Eye Flight is made with Brazilian coffee beans and that’s exactly what you get along with a little caramel and cocoa.

Taste: Again full of coffee, but with a velvety chocolate finish and just a hint of forest fruits.

Verdict: Just the right level of bitterness the hops makes this an exceptionally well balanced and drinkable Porter. Never a bad beer Tempest.