The Real Thang, the latest release from Young Henrys, is a Cola-inspired Spiced Black Koelsch. Better read that again... The Real Thang is a Cola-inspired Spiced Black Koelsch. The first question is where would one find inspiration for such a creation? Being 2013, the answer is of course: they found it on the Internet. But being 2013, we're equally within our rights to respond with: 'WTF?'. Apparently the Young Henrys crew stumbled across the open source recipe for Open Cola and figured it was worth a shot trying to translate it into a beer. Cue the caramel malts and three dark malts for the required colour, sweetness and general mouthfeel. Next comes the (now not so secret) herbs and spices; bitter orange peel, kaffir lime leaves, lemon myrtle, coriander seeds, cassia bark, lavender, vanilla, coffee and nutmeg. Throw in some light hops, chuck in a Koelsch yeast and - hey presto - Cola Beer! The boys at the brewery imagine this to be something along the lines of what the original cola elixirs might've been - 'minus the cocaine like effectsâ?.
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