Friday 1 August 2014

Friday Five: Stouts at the Wig and Pen


The Wig and Pen have got some lovely rich dark stouts on to help us through the winter months. That's very considerate of them, so we went along and tried them when they kicked off 'Stout Fest' last month. They were very good, so we have been back several times just to check that they are all still there. They are. 

5 Stouts at the Wig & Pen:
  1. Velvet cream - rich and strong, dark fruit, hints of chocolate, creamy texture: Black Forest Gateau.
  2. Papa Tom's Double Chocolate Stout (6.7%) - tasting notes say this is a traditional sweet stout with lashings of German chocolate malts and Dutch cacao, but it wasn't as chocolatey as I had expected.
  3. Sailor Dick's - a spiced rum stout flavoured with Queensland molasses and infused with a selection of spices including local black truffles. Again, it didn't taste spicy enough, but the obvious Freudian slip in the name developed before too long.
  4. Russian Imperial Stout (8.2%) - my favourite! Tasting notes refer to "a good bite from freshly roasted barley and hints of dried fruit esters from the traditional English Ale yeast". Perhaps that's why it's my favourite.
  5. Machu Picchocolate - apparently exactly the same recipe as 2 but with chilli; it gets hotter as the night goes on.
Some of the stouts on tap at the Wig & Pen