Hargreaves Hill's Stout (or Foreign Export Stout) is already one of the best of its kind in the land. And now it's been given a tweak that makes full use of the other thing the Yarra Valley is known for: you know, wine. A while back, the brewers decided to fill some French oak barrels formerly used for Shiraz by various local wineries with said stout and now they've decided it's ready and has been switched to kegs and sent on its merry way from the brewery. According to head brewer Kai Dambergs, this extended period of secondary fermentation and maturation and "several months of contemplation" yielded a "blackened, oaky beer of intensified breadth and depth, with the normal chocolate and coffee notes taking a backseat to a deepened acidity, rich sweet liquorice and dark berry malt characters upfront, yielding to a dry, textured finish that continues to dance across the palate long past the final encore." A stout that leads to dancing well past the encore? Sounds like last year's Crafty Pint Imperial Stout Blind Tasting Panel...
Sign up to our newsletters and get the latest craft beer news delivered free to your inbox. Choose from our Friday Roundup of the week, the quick-read, social feed-like Crafty Cuppa – or both!
