21 October 2017

Alechemy Bring Out The Imp Beer (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK


There's a storm brewing outside. It's called Storm Brian, which to me doesn't sound all that scary… It sounds like a homely neighbour who you have the odd glass of sherry with and talk about old times, or borrow the odd cup of sugar from. In the summertime you can't help but cadge his petrol driven lawn mower because, yet again, you've driven over the cable of your electric lawn mower. Anyway… the wind is picking up outside, there's already been quite a bit of rain, and there's more to come. Storm Brian could be quite scary after all. Maybe not as scary as the recent hurricane that remorselessly battered the Irish coast, but still enough to uproot some trees and damage some roofs.

This Alechemy Bring Out The Imp Imperial Stout sounds like a decent first Halloween beer. Not to be mistaken with "Bring out the Gimp", which is something entirely different from the excellent Quentin Tarantino film; Pulp Fiction. This stout's label suggests a dark and stormy night with tree branches curled in high winds and unfriendly eyes watching you as you hurry home in the dark. Brewed with molasses, liquorish, and oatmeal, this Alechemy Bring Out The Imp was fermented with a Belgian yeast and aged in a favourite red wine cask of mine, CĂ´tes Du Rhone. This sounds like a mouthwatering stout to me…

On opening the 330ml bottle there was a dark chocolate malt smell from the bottle, mixed with sweet molasses and a heady smell of liquorish. On pouring this almost jet black stout there was a decent creamy head. On taste there was an initial hint of red wine bringing out the sweetness from the molasses, which tickled my tastebuds first like little Imps dancing a merry innocent tune on my tongue. As the flavour washed around my mouth the dance became more intense with flavours of chocolate malt and then a more troublesome liquorish bite bringing out the prickly bitterness from the hops. The sheer alcohol content of 10.5% volume hit at the end of the flavour whereas the cheeky Imps delivered their mischievous trickery. Mmm… taken in fully by their devious subterfuge I couldn't help but take another sip, and another, warming me from the cold, damp, windy night outside. At this rate I'll be too sozzled to listen to the howling wind…

No comments: