An Brainblásta

Origin: Ireland | Date: 2012 | ABV: 7% | On The Beer Nut: February 2008

The Porterhouse has been brewing this English-style strong ale since its inception in 1996. For years its only noteworthy feature was the strength: pints at 7% ABV are still a rarity even now, but the flavour elicited few comments. Served cold from the keg it doesn't have a whole lot going on, dominated by a severe bitterness and its own malt base. And then in 2009 the brewery launched a bottled range which included Brainblásta. Cellar temperature was a massive improvement and with a few months of ageing it mellowed significantly. I've come to regard mature Brainblásta as one of Ireland's most underrated beers.

So, how far can we take this? This bottle is best-before dated June 2013 and I'm guessing it's been sitting in the stash for close to four years. There's a very vinous aroma, warming with a somewhat concerning hint of sherry about it. And that's there in the flavour too, though only a whisper at the back and I would not say that this is suffering from bad oxidation. At the front, the sweet malt smoothness has a kind of chocolate character, yet it's also quite dry: surprisingly thinly textured and with a green vegetal edge from the remaining hops.

There's a lot more happening in this than you'd find in a younger bottle. It seems busier and less integrated. It's probably a better beer after only one year, but after four it's certainly interesting.

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

Origin: USA | Date: 2009 | ABV: 10% | On The Beer Nut: September 2008

This got less than 20 words on my blog when I first encountered it, sipping a teeny tasting glass at the 2008 European Beer Festival in Copenhagen. It went on to become a firm favourite over the years, after it became regularly available in Ireland. For a while, I think, it had the big American imperial stout sector to itself. And yet I can't remember the last time I drank it, and that's not because of the double-digit ABV. But it's a classic, I've always enjoyed it: how does it hold up after seven years at the back of my attic?

Like a hackneyed movie drunk I had to double-check the label as I poured: it smells powerfully like port wine as it comes out of the bottle. More considered sniffing provides dense dark chocolate liqueur and a not unattractive meaty autolytic note. I remember it as being pretty hop-forward when fresh, but that's all gone on tasting, with not even a residual bitterness left behind. This is chocolate all the way round, sweet and smooth as you like. There's maybe a burr of leathery oxidation in the finish, but it's barely noticeable, accompanied as it is by a distracting waft of winey booze up the back of one's hooter.

I'm surprised to find that the aroma is this beer's best feature, but what an aroma! And even the flavour has developed a classy aged character. If you can keep your mitts off your stash of Black Chocolate long enough, it's rewarding.