Welcome back to the Eternal Hoptimist’s,
A sucker for Scottish beers still brewed in Scotland I spotted this one in my local Lidl and so it had to end up in my trolley. A chocolate stout with oatmeal added promises to be a decent Christmas beer rather than a seasonal gimmick.
- Name : Santa’s Stout
- Brewery: Broughton Brewery, Broughton, Scotland
- Hops : Fuggles, First Gold and Perle
- Grain : Crystal, Black Roasted and Chocolate malts, and oats
- Aroma : Not strongly smelling but with some roasted malt aromas
- Appearance : Black, some light bleed when held to a lamp, brown head
- Body : Medium bodied, well carbonated but the head retention was disappointing considering the inclusion of oatmeal
- Taste : A roasty hit is followed by hints of chocolate and sweet malt which lingers into the finish
- Dietary restrictions : Allergens highlighted
A nice stout which is obviously brewed for a wide market appeal as it is likely to be bought for the drinker, but most will find it palatable. One I suspect Santa will gratefully polish off but with him being a bit of a connoisseur, I suspect like me, he will find it a little bit thin and underpowered at only 4%, but then I didn’t have to worry about being drunk whilst driving a sleigh.
Not a beer to be overchilled which might account for in part the poor head retention and weak aroma.
Our overall rating: 3.6/ 5.0
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