Marshmallow Mountain

Pastry stout, or in this case dubbed a porter, brewed with malted barley, oats and rye, flavoured with cocoa nibs as well as lactose, as befits anything 'pastry'. From a trusted source - among England's finest - so this cannot go wrong... Thick and dense, pale mocha-beige, creamy, pillowy head slowly receding whilst leaving shreddy lacing over a black robe with hazy burgundy edges. Relatively restrained (for style) aroma of dry caramel, dark rye bread, toasted beech nuts, vague salmiak, dried out oatmeal cookies or even some granola rather than marshmallows - though the modern version of those does subtly pierce through here and there so I get the point, light vanilla, ovomaltin, cold cappuccino, touch of artisanal cola (not coming close to the original), fig compote, fried autumn apples, Conference pear, ferrous spring water. Fruity onset in a 'darkish' way, hinting at fig, ripe pear and mangosteen - but I get no guava; sweet alright, but more from the added lactose than from residual sugars, which are in fact quite limited here. The lactose, as usual, does bring about a creamy mouthfeel, very round and soft, as a marshmallow melting on your tongue indeed - but I get very little actual marshmallow flavour and I am not sure if that is a bad thing or not... Vague impressions of cola, marmite and blackberry jam linger over a caramelly, brown-bready and eventually dark-chocolatey base, picking up cappuccino-like roasted bitterness in its tail but no sooner and never in a truly 'mouth-filling' way - which in the case of this very accomplished brewery obviously means they want to stick to the original porter experience without 'descending' into stout. Instead, the lactose accentuates the sweetening effect of both the caramelly malts and the cocoa nibs, keeping things firmly in sweet territory itself as well, though not in a sticky, annoying way. Blackberry-ish sourishness helps to counter that, as does a deeply buried leafy hop bitter element and that 'late' roasted bitterness I mentioned above. In that sense, I find this pastry porter to be cleverly structured and highly drinkable - Siren has done more impressive things in all those years for sure, but this is everything you would expect from the premises given on the label, in a very smooth way (oats help too there), without exaggerating the intended marshmallow sweetness. Balance really is key here: you expect cloyingly sweet and that is what you get, in the end, but nowhere over the top like in so many other pastry stouts and pastry porters. Lovely beer from one of the - admittedly many - founding fathers of postmodern English craft brewing.

Can at Craig's, as miracle on marshmallow mountain. Pours deep ruby, nose is roasted, earthy, chocolate, vanilla, taste is sweet toffee, chocolate, marshmallow. 8/7/7/7/7

Dark toffee roasted malts, dark caramel, stale beer in the Aroma
Flavor is better, sweet toffee , caramel, butter, faint roasted malts, vanilla , somehow does not feel overly adjunct driven, tastes like a good dessert cake.

EB Tap@Taphouse (03/12/2025)

440ml can from ASDA in Watford, Herts. A dark brown/black coloured pour with a thin beige head on top. Sweet, malty, chocolate, caramel marshmallow taste, aroma is quite similar. Pleasant enough porter but incredibly sweet.

Can from a supermarket and drunk at home. Dark brown black beer lasting tan head. Chocolate aroma Chocolate flavour.some berry flavour some marshmallow flavour. Yes quite good. Some bitterness on the finish. I liked the chocolate and also how you make a beer taste like marshmallows.

9th February 2025
Panda thanks to Cloin. Near clear deep brown beer, short lived pale tan head. Semi dry palate, fairly light, reasonable fine carbonation. Decent if somewhat earthy chocolate malts, an overlay of a sweeter chocolate along with some marshmallow on the dry finish that is sweet but not overly so. A decent pastry if lacking a bit of depth.