Batemans Dark Fruits Porter (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

It's been a little cooler here in the UK this week, with a little more rain. I don't usually talk about the weather, but I thought I'd break open this Dark Fruits Porter to warm me up a bit. And besides, I always see a good Porter as a treat.

Produced by Batemans at Salem Bridge Brewery, in Lincolnshire, this Dark Fruits Porter is 4.6% in volume and made with crystal, chocolate and roasted malts. Sported on the bottle as "packed full of dark fruits", I can't decide whether to have it as a pudding beer or washing down my main meal. I have a MacDonalds takeaway, and then a bag of Thornton's Vanilla Fudge for pudding. Oooh, pudding beer it is.

After enjoying my usual triple cheeseburger with bacon, and regular fries with barbecue sauce, I popped open the bottle. There was a deep fruity aroma with sweet malts behind it. I was expecting more of a roasted chocolate malt smell, but the beer was called Dark Fruits Porter after all.

It was certainly dark in colour, almost black on pouring. Although this Dark Fruits Porter lost its head almost immediately. As an ex-barman I'm usually better at pouring than that, so I'm not sure what went wrong.

On taste this Porter was very fruity indeed. This fruitiness cut through the touch of sweet crystal and chocolate malts, and then kept on giving. With a little spice mixed in with the mild bitterness from the hops, this really was a fruity warming beer. Very nice indeed. It went very well with my vanilla fudge pudding too.