for those of you who don’t know Aro there is a light side and a dark side to the valley. For those of us on the dark side of the street it’s been a long dark winter. But salvation is nigh. The coming of Spring has brought the first teasing hints that the sun might come again to the Garage.It’s pitch black and full flavoured but with a nice balance of hops and roast malt character. At its heart is English Maris Otter pale malt, with a touch of Crystal and a generous addition of Roast and Black malts. The hops are American, Chinook andSummit, creating a nice citric bitterness and aroma which marries nicely with the roast malt character. At 7.1% abv it’s rich but not heavy or cloying.
Yes, it is inspired by the darkness of a Wellington winter in Aro Valley, but truly it is a stout for all seasons.
A generous 650ml bottle of a 7% ABV beer - making it about 3.8 standard drink units, I'm unreasonably excited by the prospect of this. Madmess.
The cap-off aroma is of chocolates - It's a tar black pour with a brown fluffy head that soon dies away. There seems to be a rich collection of aromas in the glass, but I get a lot of dark fruit.
And there is nothing you're you're not expecting in the taste, it's full rich and a bit good. There is smokey, there is coffee, there is a nice bitter front and a long warm finish. I would have liked less bitter up front, but that's a pick not a complaint. There is enough each mouthful to make this very enjoyable.
The pdubyah-o-meter says 7.75 of it's things, it could do with more body and for me a bit more malt sweet. The layers of taste are there but they could be there more. It's not to say that I wouldn't over indulge with this on a night out, and that'd make the walk home a bit wobbly and longer than expected. Fine stuff.
Oh and as an aside - this is post #500. I'm not sure what else I wrote about other than beer, I'll make a note to review it some time.
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