Two of my favourite breweries collaborated to create this beer which was brewed at Kees’ Middelburg brewery in The Netherlands.
Both a very creative brewers who like to push boundaries and explore what they can do with beer, so I was very interested to see what they came up with. The answer was an orange chocolate stout.
Kees chose the Dutch oranges as his contribution, while Ronald opted for pure Belgian chocolate. The result is a very tasty, slightly sweet but not in desert stout territory beer that I reckon has a bit of a good old jaffas vibe to it.
Pouring almost black in colour, the aroma is full of chocolate (of course), cocoa, caramel, dark fruits and some roasty malt. It sounds like it will be really sweet, and all of those aromas do come through in the flavour, but there is a balance of bitterness, roasted malt astringency and the orange citrus that lift this beer up.
It is actually really well done, very smooth mouthfeel and that wonderful balance that even leaves a citrusy, bitter zing in the aftertaste.
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