Can @ Hanging Bat, Edinburgh. Black with a beige head. Aroma is sweet, roasted malt, chocolate and caramel. Flavor is very sweet and moderate bitter. Sweet and moderate bitter finish with warming alcohol. Oily and soft. 250726

Creamy good mostly diminishing head. Black colour. Moderate malty and light hoppy aroma. Heavy bitter flavor. Long light bitter finish. Oily palate.

Ultra-strong Scottish pastry stout aiming to evoke deep-fried Mars bars, something I heard about but never encountered, not even during my trip to Scotland from which I returned yesterday - but I was happy to forget about that and move straight onto this beer, sampled from tap at BrewDog Castlegate, the fancy BrewDog café right across Aberdeen's impressive city hall, replacing the old 'Flagship', their very first café elsewhere in the city (now gone). Loose and open, irregular arrangement of small yellow-beige bubbles around the edge, dissolving quickly into nothing over a pool of sheer blackness - though a subtle shade of mahogany brown is still present. Intense bouquet of chocolate ganache or indeed Mars bars, caramel sauce, Belgian chocolates, Irish cream liqueur, Sachertorte, blackberry coulis, butterscotch, sticky toffee pudding, nougat, pecan, granola, dried fig - and indeed Mars bar. Densely sweet onset, a bit sticky but not too annoyingly so, fig compote, date jam and blackberry sauce notes, softly carbonated with obviously very thick, oily, rather syrupy mouthfeel, an intense play of toffee, chocolate fondant, ganache and strong butterscotch - the choco-caramel combo indeed reminding one of Mars bars. A light toasty bitterishness lingers at the back and provides some balance, along with a faint dash of spicy hops, but these elements are cleverly hidden behind the curtain, letting the Mars bar effect speak for itself, highlighted by unsurprisingly pronounced, yet well-positioned and never astringent coffee liqueur-like alcohol - oddly not nearly as obtrusive as one would expect at this strength. A liquid Mars bar indeed, this over-the-top pastry stout is not just a formidable construction of a beer, but a very intelligent one as well, with the right elements placed in the right position, thereby avoiding the overt stickiness or alcoholic wryness one could encounter in a similar beer by a less skilled brewery. Cheers to Vault City (and Neon Raptor) for that alone, because whether you like this kind of almost farcical beers or not, there is no denying that this is a technical 'tour de force'.

11 June 2024. At Wee Vault, Edinburgh. Shared with the lovely Anke!

A: cloudy black, thin, beige head.
A: dark fudge, caramel sauce, melting chocolate, hazelnut.
T: very sweet chocolate & caramel sauce, sugared nuts, vanilla.
F: soft herbal hops, thick chocolate & caramel, warming liqueur-like alcohol.
P: full body, oily texture, soft carbonation.
Over the top like the deep-fried thing itself, but darn it's equally delicious.