Beer – #732 – Hallertau – Nocturne
Another beer with a label that intrigues, again from Hallertau, and this time a Stout, because, well, I like a good Stout. Plus there seems to be a quite a few around at the moment, for no reason I can figure, and well who doesn’t like a good Stout beer.
Coffee and chocolate. Really tasty
An 8.8% ABV beer, in a 500ml bottle some 264 calories a serve size, and 45 IBU things, the whole is about 3.5 standard drinks.
Brewed by Hallertau Brewbar & Restaurant in the style that is Imperial Stout and they did that in Auckland, New Zealand
Hopefully music to my tongue
A seriously black stout dominated by intense roasted flavours with solid hop bitterness and warming alcohol on the finish.
So, what could possibly go wrong?
Expecting a musical symphony, or some such
A Milk chocolate aroma on opening.
Black as coal pour with a lovely coffee tinged head that filled up the available space, and I didn’t lose any.
A slightly bitter base over a milk and chocolate aroma in the glass.
The last is a lot of milkiness than a shot of bitter, some chocolate, a bit in the middle, and that a wallop of a dry finish.
A bit unusual as mouthfeel goes if I was being particular.
I decided that really I didn’t care too much for this, and I know because I got sidetracked with something else. I don’t know I’m bit on that lactose milk sweetness, and that underlying bitter, and that dry finish caught me out.
None of that makes it a bad or undrinkable beer though, just because this pretty close to being something really nice, it just fails to go the distance, comes up a bit short, and leaves you wanting, to nick a phrase, for me it’s unseated the jockey. And I don’t even follow the nags.
I think really then that this is a bit rather unbalanced, with a log of lactose/sugar at the front, making a bitterness and a dryness, hiding a beer that needed to have bit more punch in the middle. Lacks a bit of mouthfeel and substance. A few duff notes. I’m all about the cliché.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 8 of its things from the thing. It could be contender. Probably actually wouldn’t be, as for me this is rather lop-sided and a bit muddled. But I enjoyed it as drink, just not as an experience.
The double dip review
- Where did I get it? The nice people at Blanc Out West had this
- Am I enjoying it? On one level I am, on another no.
- Would I have another? I don’t think I would, this reminded me of another stout that I’d rather be drinking.
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Simply put, no.
Music for this: ” Benji Hughes ” ” Songs in the Key of Animals ” on Spotify. Benji Hughes is an American musical artist from Charlotte, North Carolina
Very pop
Imperial stouts are usually extremely dark brown to black in color with flavors that are intensely malty, deeply roasted and sometimes with accents of dark fruit (raisin, fig) or milk sourness. The bitterness is typically medium and often the low sie of that. Imperial stouts are strong and often exceed 8% by volume.
A life just as ordinary 