Saltaire Brewery
West Yorkshire, U.K.
Brewed near a well-preserved industrial village and UNESCO World Heritage Site. A former winner of a gold medal at the SIBA Beer Competition, this beer’s chocolate malts make it an opaque black stout.
ABV: 4.8
ABW: 3.8
COLOR: NA
BITTERNESS: 35
ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1048
AVAILABLE: Brazil, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom
The brewery uses Maris Otter pale malt, oat malt, torrefied wheat and chocolate malt, with just Fuggles hops for aroma and bitterness. Flavor comes from chocolate essence and syrup in fermenter and bright beer tank, with cocoa powder added to the hops in the kettle. The aroma is like lifting the lid on a box of Belgian chocolates, with further notes of creamy malt and gentle peppery hops. Dry chocolate dominates the mouth, but there’s a solid underpinning of bitter hops, which carries through to a long finish with creamy malt and dry chocolate.
- Roger Protz
This dark brown beer raises very little foam, despite a vigorous pour. The aroma is coffeelike, with a big overlay of Swiss Miss powdered hot chocolate; you can almost imagine the little marshmallows floating in the beer. The palate is satisfyingly dry and the bitterness flinty, with enough malty fruit in the center to make the whole thing work. A nice clean finish wraps it up. I don’t tend to like the flavors of “essences” in my beer, but this is well-made and would be a fine match for barbecue.
- Garrett Oliver
Roger Protz
Author of Complete Guide to World Beer and 300 Beers to Try Before You Die. Respected beer authority and editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and www.protzonbeer.co.uk.
Garrett Oliver
Garrett Oliver is the brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery, the Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Companion to Beer, the author of The Brewmaster’s Table, and a veteran host of more than 800 beer dinners in 15 countries.
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