Herevana – Hallertau – Nocturne Double Stout
Hallertau Nocturne Double Stout. Oi Oi! a beer that you look forward to, a yearly release of, usually because they’re of high quality. I first had this back in 2016, which when you sit and think about it is 5 years ago now. I prefer not to think about the passing of years, but the arrival of the annual releases.
Hallertau Nocturne Double Stout is made in Riverhead, Auckland, 🇳🇿 as a Stout – Imperial in style with an ABV of 8.8% and with 45 IBU. This is 2.3 Standard drinks in NZ. This is around 264 cal per 355ml.
Riverhead is a short drive from here, it’s a lovely venue and of course always lovely beers and a great food menu. MrsPhil if you’re reading this you need to take me there again, I missed out on Birthday Month and I’m due a visit. MrsPhil notoriously doesn’t read these posts. That I know of, but she’s participated in most of them, usually with a “that smells like beer” or when she’s retrieving some cheese that I’ve cunningly sequestered for my enjoyment.
Anyway, I digress.
“The Raw and Unprepared State of the Soul in the Dark” is says on the label, I’m not one to quibble, and I enjoy these tidbits as I find them, I’m pretty sure there are some gems that I’ve missed.
Thats a lovely rich dark aroma when you open the bottle, the pour is lovely, dark, deep cark, and a mocha colour head sits atop proud and form, staunch even. The aroma fills out the glass really well, such a joy to have a beer like this to hand.
There’s a ping of bitterness as you fist sip this, and it remains evident as the beer travels and finishes, but it also leaves some lip smacking and second enjoyment. There’s almost a solid fruitless in the body of this, a lovely understated sweet fullness.
It’s easy to start being all doe-eyed and wax lyrical about the beautiful magnificence that unfolds, it’s easy to be drawn in to puff up the beer experience to a level it may not deserve, an emotional response. Lets be honest that’s me though, drinking a beer, and enjoying it like I’m enjoying it. Right here, right now, this is wondrous beer, a beer like no other. Just for now.
But seriously this is nice, that toasted darkness in this that derives the chocolate or smokey notes (as is your want to describe them, that little prickle of bitterness and the aroma as you begin to sup make this a bit of a lovely experience beer.
As part of the meaningful and deep research I read the generalised description of Imperial Stouts that I’ve cut and pasted into the post (See at the bottom of this post) where it says “Roasty-burnt malt with deep dark or dried fruit flavors, and a warming, bittersweet finish” and I gave myself a high five.
The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 on the arbitrary number scale. It would be hard not to like this as a Stout and the way it is presented. I don’t think it should be your first Stout, by which I mean that this is a top-shelf beer, and I think that I’ve got to the appreciation of this on the shoulders of many stouts. This is good, really good, and I’ve got a whole year to wait for the next iteration.
Hallertau Say : A seriously black stout dominated by intense roasted flavours with solid hop bitterness and warming alcohol on the finish
Herevana beers are those I drink at home, I’m not at some beer festival, like, for instance, Beervana, but am just in my kitchen, usually, dining room table, sometimes, or outside, occasionally, where I can take an average picture and write in real time about the beer that I’ve invested in, both in a monetary and emotional way.
Philip himself.
Who doesn’t like a bit of Aretha Franklin to go with a beer? To be fair I skipped ahead to Disc 4 of the compilation.
Stout – Imperial
The “Imperial Stout” or “Double Stout” is an intensely-flavored, big, very dark reddish-brown to black colored ale with a wide range of flavor balances and regional interpretations. Roasty-burnt malt with deep dark or dried fruit flavors, and a warming, bittersweet finish. American versions have more bitterness, roasted character, and finishing hops, while the English varieties, or “Russian Imperial Stout” (RIS), reflect a more complex specialty malt character and a more forward ester profile. Like a black barleywine with every dimension of flavor coming into play. More complex, with a broader range of possible flavors than lower-gravity stouts.
A life just as ordinary 