Another De Molen, another Imperial Stout. But in true De Molen style, this is something a little different.
Uniquely labelled as a ‘Coconut Breakfast Stout-ish’, this beer features 5 different barley malts as well as flaked oats. It is then finished with hand toasted coconut flakes which are as a dry hop. It’s the oats that define this as a breakfast stout, as there isn’t any coffee used, and the roasted malt character is far more dark chocolate than coffee.
Those coconut flakes are prominent in the aroma, along with the dark chocolate malts. It hints at this being a very sweet beer, but it isn’t as much as the nose suggests. Some dried fruit flavours mix with cocoa and bitter dark chocolate, but there is enough roasted malt astringency and bitterness to balance things out with the beer finishing reasonably dry.
To liken it to a Bounty Bar is a little too much, but it is firmly in the pastry stout/dessert beer genre. As with so many of these dark beers, allow it to warm for a while after taking it from the fridge and you’ll get a lot more of those flavours opening up as you enjoy this beer.