B’easter Egg Imperial Choc Ale by Dainton Brewery
This week we return to a favourite brewery of the blog (and #9 in the recent to 20), Dainton Brewery. Dainton primarily make two types of beer: awesome hoppy varieties of IPA’s, and weird, funky out-there concoctions. And the quality of the former, often convinces me to try more of the weird stuff than I would from any other brewery. This week’s beer is one of the weird ones: B’easter Egg Imperial Choc Ale.
First off, this obviously isn’t the weirdest beer I’ve had. Heck, it’s not even the weirdest Dainton beer I’ve had (Pickle Dan, I’m looking at you). Chocolate and beer is a combo that’s been done before. Where it gets a bit more unusual is where Dainton have decided to pair the chocolate with an imperial ale. Usually, when you get a chocolate beer, it’s some variety of stout or porter with a big rich malty flavour to envelope the chocolatiness. With an imperial ale, there’s nowhere to hide. The chocolate balance needs to be spot on. Lucky for Dainton, it absolutely is with B’easter Egg.
The first sip is actually a little bit of an boozy hit right off the bat (the beer does clock in at 9% after all). Your initial though is ‘uh oh, this is going to be waaaaayyy over the top’. But then the chocolatiness seeps in to start to balance out the flavour. And in it’s wake, it brings the ale character of the beer. It’s a bit of an odd sensation with the flavours and textures hitting you in that order, but it works.
The fact that Dainton used an imperial ale is simultaneously the oddest decision and best decision with this beer. It’s not your typical chocolate beer (i.e. a run-of-the-mill stout with a hint of chocolate thrown in, but ultimately overpowered by the stoutiness). This is a really well crafted and unique imperial ale (which is an easy beer variety to get wrong).
It’s not a beer I’d drink every day. But that being said, it is a seasonal Easter beer with a whopping 9% ABV. It’s not intended to be an everyday beer. But as a unique take on the slightly overdone chocolate beer genre, it’s very much worth a try. I’m hoping it’s not just a one off. Because I’d very much like to hunt for another one come next Easter.