Cheshire Chocolate Porter (Marks & Spencer) By @SpectreUK

Over my several years of beer blogging I've written about some strange flavoured beers, some fruity and many chocolatey. At times I come across a beer that's familiar, like any snack in the shops I walk by and think "have a blogged about this?" This is one of those occasions that I've found a beer that I'm sure I've written about. However, we've searched all the way through the blog and I just haven't written about it. It feels like one of those people you meet and you're sure you've known them somewhere before. However, this Cheshire Chocolate Porter from the Unicorn Brewery in Stockport is a new find. At 6% volume this Chocolate Porter has chocolate flavouring added during the brewing, making it perfect for blogging about at Easter time. Especially when we found I had written about the chocolate stout that I was going to write about instead, because I was so sure I had written about this beer rather than that one!

After the initial blogging confusion, there was a strong chocolate smell to this porter on opening, which wasn't much of a surprise, but there was one surprise in store for me. I was expecting this chocolate porter to be almost black in colour, but it fact it was a deep brown. Although I probably do need to get out a bit more! Anyway, this is a chocolate porter through and through. There is chocolate in the initial flavour which mixes well with the sweet malts and dash of herbal hoppy bitterness into the chocolatey aftertaste. I could also taste the strength of the alcohol, making this seem like a chocolate porter liquor towards the back of the flavour, which is step away from the roasted chocolate malt with coffee undertones that I've been used to in the past. In fact the taste through this familiar porter made it altogether unfamiliar indeed. It's certainly a pudding beer to savour with a chocolate egg or two! Happy Easter!