Let there be stout

Winter is on the doorstep and isn't planning to leave any time soon. Time to get the stouts out.

Aldi kicks things off, tackling the Big G with its latest beer knock-off, Mulligan's. This copies the 4.1% ABV that Guinness Draught has in the UK, and is brewed at an unnamed British brewery, understood to be SEB Brewing & Packaging in Kent. It has a widget, and it's an eager little bugger, causing the beer to froth out of the can on opening, creating a much too thick head. There's a moderately sweet aroma, of caramel and treacle. The flavour carries that slightly sticky sense as well, but puts it up against an earthy, almost smoky, bitter side. There's a metallic, saccharine tang which becomes more prominent as the beer warms, though we're back to treacle again for the finish. It doesn't bear more than a superficial resemblance to the beer it's ripping off. It's more complex and flavourful, but not in a good way. The taste is quite jarring and a little difficult, as against the smooth blandness of Guinness and the other mainstream Irish stouts. It tastes cheaply made, lacking refinement, and even though it was sold for the minimum legal price, I wasn't happy to be stuck with another three cans of it. 

Going even more traditional is WhiteField. When they call a beer Irish Stout, they mean it. The 7.5% ABV here would be familiar to drinkers of pre-1917 Irish stout, even if it's far stronger than the norm today. There's a pleasing tactile sensation in prising off the cap and pouring a glass of pure black liquid, letting the cappuccino-coloured head form on top. The aroma is faint, but vaguely sweet, suggesting wholesome molasses and fruitcake. That element sits at the back of the flavour, adding a lighter touch to an otherwise quite serious profile. We are warned to expect smoke, and it's the heavy sort: bonfires and furnaces, almost acrid but stopping short of being unpleasant. There's a very wholesome roast, like brown breadcrust and charred beef, and then a dark and tangy liquorice and spinach bitterness. I'm pulling the various features apart here, but really they hang together beautifully, to create a highly satisfying drinking experience; filling and warming, as stout ought to be. This is proper stuff, and bears something of a resemblance to the stronger Guinness beers. I have a lot of time for this kind of thing, and would be happy if the words "Irish stout" denoted it more often than the lacklustre effort above.

Turning fully seasonal, next is Irish Ember, a "Christmas porter" from Brehon Brewhouse in collaboration with Bavarian brewery St Erhard, and presumably intended primarily for Germany as the label is mostly in their language. I'm guessing this was brewed for Christmas last year but it was still on the shelves in Martin's of Fairview where I picked it up a few months ago. It's another attractive pour, looking every inch the old-school porter. I couldn't find details of the barrel the beer was aged in, but from the honey-sweet aroma, I would hazard Irish whiskey. There are some sweet chocolate and coffee vapours too. The flavour opens on a woody, coconut effect, with overtones of dark-chocolate Bounty bars. It's definitely a dessert beer, and tastes stronger than its 7.7% ABV. The downside is the oak, which adds a harshness to the taste that I didn't care for. The chocolatey base beer and the sprightly spirit warmth are both excellent, but the wood sap element prevents it from being the majestically smooth winter beer it's trying to be. Regardless, it's enjoyable, and I can see it being well suited to dark evenings when something appropriately rich and warming, but not crazy-strong, is called for.

For crazy strong we turn to the Netherlands. Moersleutel has brewed Barcode: Nitro Blue with the assistance of Carlow Brewing, which knows a thing or two about making good stout. It's nitrogenated but without a widget in the can, so even after the recommended shaking and a vigorous pour, I got a flat-looking beer with a thin topping of brown bubbles. This system of packaged nitrogenation doesn't work. It's an especially strong fellow, at 14% ABV, and the aroma is very spirituous -- port and brandy barrels have been employed, and it really does smell like the latter. No carbonation makes it soupy thick, like drinking chocolate sauce. The boozy brandy spreads napalm-like across the throat, lasting for ages. I get the impression that a lot of flavour has ended up locked in to the liquid here, but what I found was dark chocolate, runny caramel, hazelnut spread, and a non-specific black liqueur. All of it is loud and simplistic, with no subtle topnotes or counter-melodies going on. In fact, it's all a bit basic. This could have been a good beer if they hadn't messed up the nitrogenation or, preferably, carbonated it. A beer of this strength will bring its own rich creaminess without any added nitrogen, and might be less difficult to chew through that way.

Stout, even in all its varieties, is a mixed bag. The geeks and raters fixate on the really strong ones; know-all pintmen regard 5%+ as dangerous rocket fuel. They're both wrong. 6-8% ABV is where the best work in stout is done, with barrel-ageing and odd ingredients not necessarily an enhancement. I'm glad we could get that sorted out early in the season.