Straight off, I should point out that I am not a big drinker. If there was such a thing as a market mechanism to trade my unused Alcohol Units then I would be pretty well off, perhaps even a millionaire but hey-what.
My consumption is usually one bottle of wine per week and that is usually sipped away whilst cooking the friday night chilli meal for the family and so that does not really count, does it?
I am often required to buy bottled beer if we are expecting family or visitors on a special get-together or celebration and I am very much an impulse purchaser not so much the well known brands but strangely named brews such as Bishop's Finger, Banana Beer and fruit infusions.
The row of beer pumps in my local real ale pub ( by local I mean that I have been in once in three years) remains a mystery to me and even more so now with the emergence of Craft Beers from small independent breweries out of someones shed, garage or industrial unit.
The Chocolate Lager was a birthday gift from my sister in law and her partner, nestled in a presentation box from an on-line store amongst a bar of chocolate and oversized chocolate buttons by the Brighton born Montezuma company.
I will admit that the bar and buttons were greedily consumed but for some reason I found that I had a bit of a problem in accepting that the smoked glass 330ml bottle was a valid tipple.
Whoever heard of beer and chocolate together in a liquid apart from a terrible, freakish accident in the plastic carrier back coming back from the shops?
The lager is a collaboration between Montezuma and the Hogs Back Brewery in Tongham, just to the south east of Aldershot, Surrey, UK.
Fortunately for beer drinkers in the UK and indeed worldwide this fusion is, as the bottle label states, "about as good as it gets". The use of such words as "project" and "head on collision" in the marketing blurb does, to me, suggests that the collusion was probably not that natural or symbiotic but rather an experimental project that went unbelievably, pleasantly well.
My initial reluctance to pop the bottle cap was in part and I admit now, down to a recent bad experience with a craft beer, in this case a Chocolate Porter. Part showing off and part curious I had ordered a pint of the stuff at a Father's Day pub meal with my loved ones and it was (the beer), in polite terms, horrendous. I could see a place for it after 10pm at night if there was no drinking chocolate in the house and as a perfect accompaniment for a digestive biscuit but no way as a social or regular drink.
The Hogs Back/Montezuma Chocolate Lager would indeed have to be remarkable to salvage my confidence.
First taste?
Straight from the fridge, very refreshing. A light texture, good gaseous bubbles and then a faint taste of something familiar from way back in my consciousness, a sort of flash flavour blend of all of my favourite chocolate bars ever plus a bowl of Coco-Pops. That may sound an endorsement of the product by Augustus Gloop but I should clarify the sensations on my tongue and palate.
The chocolate is subtle or even fleeting and does not intrude on the wonderful and distinctive malted barley in the lager nor is there any aftertaste or bitterness.
If you are able to overcome the same sort of reticence that I felt upon first seeing the bottle then you are in for a real treat.
I recommend that it is best drunk on its own to savour the flavour.
You can buy it direct on line or from some of the main UK Supermarkets where it retails at £2 for a 330ml bottle, about the same price as a gourmet bar of chocolate.
No comments:
Post a Comment