Beer Blackman's Brewery Vanilla Choc Mud Cake Stout

You couldn't throw too many more words at the name of this beer that would make it significantly richer, sweeter or more gooey in your mind's eye. It sounds like the proverbial GABS stout and left the Torquay brewery around the time GABS should have been on. Yet the beer comes from Blackman's so isn't quite as it might have been in other hands...

Sure, the experience is overwhelmingly one of dark chocolate fudge mud cake in a glass, yet these are brewers with a tendency towards dry and balanced finishes so it's nowhere near as sweet as it could have been. There's a hint of rich coffee, a touch of drying roast too, the result of which is a beer that's more full-bodied stout than cholesterol-boosting dessert in a glass.

James Smith