7.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Fruit stout made for St. John’s restaurant in London – and we beer enthusiasts are always happy when a ‘serious’ restaurant puts craft beer on the menu (let alone have one made as their house beer). From tap at Dok Brewing Festival. Mousy, pale greyish beige, slowly opening but otherwise stable head on a black beer with thin mahogany edges. Aroma of walnuts, blackberries, coffee grounds, anise or even eucalyptus (cough syrup-like) representing the allspice, cassis, bubblegum, nutmeg, elderberry juice, brown bread. Strangely sour onset due to the added redcurrant, fizzy carb, smooth body; dry ‘hard-caramelly’ base with a bit of a bubblegum-like effect and ongoing redcurrant berry acidity; still ends rounded and soft, dryish with mild earthy yeast effects and a dash of mildly ethereal allspice, yet that streak of sharpish yet refreshing redcurrant sourness continues well into the finish. In effect, adding an astringently sour fruit like redcurrant to a soft, mellow stout has rendered the whole thing sour, but in a refreshing, crisp and focused way; a sour stout in a certain way, but without the painstaking process of bacterial infection, just by adding a sour kind of fruit. Interesting and quite accessible, in all.