Mudcake Bänger

Bottle, bb 9/25. Black, scant coat of tan head. Roasty, earthy chocolaty aroma with brioche, chicory. Syrupy, low carbonation. Very sweet with a fair bit of overt alcohol. Lots of chocolate, quite roasty. Bitter end fights rather than balances the sweetness - but at least it gets the upper hand. Not one of their best.

From a 330ml bottle on 19/10/2024. Pours a very deep brown with no head. The nose features dark chocolate, caramel, fudge and a touch of soy. All of these present on the sip too - moderately sweet up front with a firm, sharp, roasty, lingering and somewhat boozy bitterness finishing things off. Has an oily palate and softish carbonation. Enjoyable but definitely a slow fireside sipper.

Panda at home, thanks to Kenneth, 06/03/24. Black with a tan head that thins to a swirl. Nose is dark malts, cocoa powder, mellow roast, dried fruit rinds, burnt toffee. Taste comprises cacao nibs, hint of jammy berry fruits, charr, roasted bite, booze kiss, spice, mellow roast. Full bodied, fine carbonation, semi drying close with a balanced spike of alcohol. Okay pastry sipper but lacking depth for the hefty ABV.

17th February 2024
Almost opaque dark brown beer, short lived thin tan head. Smooth palate, slightly viscous, reasonable fine carbonation. Soft dark chocolate, yes, cocoa and cakey and a little spice. Modest vanilla. Fair bit of, for me, unwelcome estery sweetness. A smooth and semi dry finish. Tasty but lacks any complexity and is definitely too estery for my liking. A disappointing brew from this great brewer.

330ml bottle at the Beer Bank, Kuala Lumpur City Centre. Poured almost black in colour with a very short-lived, frothy tan head. The aroma is roasty malt, alcohol and light chocolate. The flavour is over moderate boozy liquorice bitter, with a big, rich, light chocolate, big liquorice boozy alcohol bitter palate. Full bodied with soft carbonation. A big imperial stout for sure, but super boozy and the alcohol really dominates. The promised chocolate is well and truly in the background and hardly detectable. Served way too cold at 6 degrees, but 30 minutes of warming did nothing to bring any sweetness through. Disappointed if I’m honest. It’s a decent imperial stout but this beer is all about the alcohol and that’s not what was written on the label. A bad batch maybe? The flavours reported by other raters were simply not there in the bottle I had.

Pastry stout inspired by mudcake – in itself not an overly complicated recipe, so let us see if this one has been kept equally simple and effective. Bottle at Bar Beenhouwer. Thin, yellowish pale beige, opening but otherwise retaining head, jet black robe. Aroma of lots of bitter chocolate, black coffee, caramel sauce, walnut liqueur, toffee, pecan nut pie, cognac, brown sugar, fig jam. Densely sweet onset, fig jam and blackberry coulis, pear syrup perhaps, not too sticky though; very light porcini-like umami accent, softish carb and very full, oily mouthfeel. Layers of melting dark chocolate, toffee, walnut paste and eventually latté macchiato fill the mouth cavity, some spicy hops aid the coffee aspect in providing a bit of balancing bitterness and warming, whisky-like alcohol, a tad boozy perhaps, ties everything together. Very typical Põhjala profile and very ‘American’ too, but somehow I expect a pastry stout named after mudcake to be even more, well, chocolatey. Still very solid and complex, though, so no complaints other than that slightly ‘off’ association in my head, I guess…

Bottle at home, black beer, no head. Aroma is roast, malt, fruit, dark ripe fruit, cacao, chocolate. Taste is the same, bitter, roast, chocolate, light taste of dark ripe fruit, very nice.