Those of you who are health-conscious (or foolish) enough to be bothered with dry January, I applaud you. My applause is mainly based on the fact that I can't for the life of me figure out how you have the will power to do it. As far as I am concerned January is, at the very best of times tedious, and at the very worst of times it is outright painful. The weather is shit, money is tight, it's dark too damn early and it seems to go on and on for ever. I don't know why any sane person would choose to endure this god forsaken month without the joy of a malt-based sedative to take the sting out of the tail of this scorpion. But oh well, more power to you.
I, on the other hand, have very little will power any time of the year and in darkest January I find I need the promise of a good beer at the end of the week (or day) just to summon the strength to get me to act like a reasonably responsible adult. As a general rule of thumb, it takes DIPAs or above, or imperial stouts to keep me motivated during this, the cruellest of months (I don't care what you have to say about April Mr Eliot).
Mint Chocolate Stout - Barrel Aged
Style - Stout
Brewer - Vocation Brewery
Adjuncts - Mint & Cacao
ABV - 12.2%
The Beer
I feel like I am growing a little curmudgeonly as the years go by, in particular with the need for every brewer and chef (and about five years later, every supermarket) to try an blow the public away with some heretofore untried combination of flavours. I don't want durian in my IPAs, I don't want banana with my beef and I don't want seaweed in my stouts. Sorry, but there is only so much room in this world for Adrias and Blumenthals and not every brainwave is a stroke of genius. Ok, I am maybe overstating things, I respect experimentation in all arenas, but just because something is out there and experimental, doesn't in and of itself connote value, sometimes "jazz" is just noise and sometimes random ingredients bungled together is just a mistake. Be experimental by all means, but unless you are absolutely confident it works, why the hell would you ever ask anyone for money for it? Sometimes the quotidian is quotidian for a reason, it works.
For example, mint and chocolate. Mint and chocolate works extremely well, the fresh, zinginess of the former cutting through the richness and decadence of the latter and creating something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Needless to say, my grumpy old man wasn't rearing his wrinkled head at the prospect of a mint chocolate barrel aged stout, quite the opposite. Also, given Vocation's track record for brewing solidly good beers, I had all confidence that I would enjoy this.
Mint Chocolate Stout (MCS from hereon out) pours like velvet - actually I don't know why I am saying that as nobody has ever poured velvet, but this beer is smooth, that's all I'm saying more like molten chocolate than beer. It is fucking dense too, there is a proper heft to the glass once MCS has settled into it with its pitch black body and dark caramel-coloured head.
Despite MCS' good looks, and they are really very good, there is something odd going on the nose here. Yes, there is a hint of mint to this, but it isn't the super punchy fresh mint I was expecting, instead it is more like dried mint out of a jar. Because of this, I wouldn't say the mint note is the first thing you are likely to pick out when you smell MCS. What I found most apparent was an odd sort of savoury/sweet scent, something like dark soy sauce. In fact, the more I smell it the scent I am most associating with MCS is Asian braised pork, while this is a flavour and aroma I really enjoy, it is a bit left field for a stout, especially when you're expecting a liquid version of an After Eight mint or a mint Aero.
Don't let this slightly odd aroma put you off though. Once you get MCS in your mouth, it's all good, every bit of it. The mouthfeel on this is exceptional, it's thick and it coats the tongue like a milkshake before giving way to very gentle effervescence which lifts everything from your palette as the beer washes down your throat. The drinking of this reminds me of my first Mikkeller breakfast stout or maybe Northern Monk's Dark City line, which are things I want to be reminded of a hell of a lot more.
Taste-wise the freshness of mint is more noticeable than it was on the nose. I wouldn't call it the most vibrant mint flavour ever, but it works exceptionally well with the deep richness of the cacao (the cacao note becomes more pronounced if you aerate the beer in your mouth a bit - which will make you look like a prat) and the almost coffee like notes of the malts. Everything here works together really well together, nothing is too sweet or too bombastic, it's all just right and feels like a very grown up affair. There is also a slight brandy flavour coming through, which I suspect is down to the barrel aging, and which adds to the grown up feel of MCS. But, as much as I like the way all the flavours work together in this one, it might be a bit much for some people, despite all its subtlety.
I have been pleasantly surprised by MCS, not least because I wasn't expecting aromas of Asian braised pork from a mint chocolate stout, but also because Vocation have produced a really grown up beer which uses an everyday flavour combination in a way I wasn't expecting. Just be careful, MCS is surprisingly addictive once you get into its groove, but it's 12.2% which, if you are anything like me, will floor you - but maybe that's what I need to cure the January blues?
Score - 4.75/5 (I have deducted 0.25 points here because soy sauce notes may not be for everyone).
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