It's a hardknott life

Steve gave me a few Hardknott beers in exchange for a Shandon Century stout 1 litre bottle. This was at the Belfast beer festival a few weeks back. 

I like Dave and his beers ever since I went to visit him at the woolpack. Since he sold the pub and moved the brewery to Millom, production has upped and his beer is now available around the UK, though I imagine sparsely as his brewery is still very small.
They are still not available in Ireland sadly.

Dark energy is is like static electricity. You know the type, when you wear nylon clothing and you keep getting shocked.
The aroma is a sort of fizzy sherbety sour concoction. Not what I was expecting from a stout but did fit the name.
The taste was odd, I found it incredibly gassy. It was also rather oily and I got a lot of lemon. To be honest, I did not get a whole lot more. I suspect I got a dodgy bottle because I got none of the expected chocolate or roasted notes. By all accounts this is a much more interesting beer.





Far more interesting to me was Code Black. This is a black IPA and all arguments about the stupidity of naming a pale ale; black aside, this is a beautiful beer.
Yes it tastes like hop juice and I love it for that. It may not be the most complex beer I have ever tasted, but it's big and bold and in your face. It's quite thick and has a hint of treacle mixed in with the
big hop profile.










And finally we have Vitesse Noir, a coffee, vanilla and chocolate infused; triple imperial stout. This little bottle packs a punch at 11%abv. The beer is essentially flat with almost no carbonation to speak of. In the case of this style of beer, that was quite welcome, though a little bit of fizz would not have gone amiss. Still it did not detract from the beer. 
The aroma was full of coffee, chocolate syrup and vanilla. 
It tastes like a mocha coffee with alcohol added. It's rather boozy but in that pleasant way rather than a harsh acetone. Creamy with slightly bitter finish. Plenty of treacle in the middle. It is a lovely beer but I shudder to think of the caffeine content because I avoid caffeine usually. 

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The Tale Of The Ale: It's a hardknott life
It's a hardknott life
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The Tale Of The Ale
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