Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale

Yep, a beer based on a doughnut.

And not just any doughnut: a bacon maple effort. Hence the frankly awesome bottle. It's a smoked beer at heart, with maple syrup in there too. The label actually suggests there's actual bacon in there too, which puzzles me somewhat. Do they put it in the mash?

Regardless, both key elements stand out on the aroma, and in flavour - it really does smell and taste like smoke, vague bacon, and maple syrup. Which sounds like a "hurr hurr funny" sort of a beer that you can't really drink, right?

Wrong. It's actually pretty bloody drinkable too. Odd, yes. Difficult, absolutely not. Top stuff, much respect! Only real problem is the nagging feeling of loss that we can't get those donuts here as a combo.. 8.5

Moon Dog Black Lung II

Another spirit aged stout - this time a revisit of a past brew with new edits and improvements.

My critique of the first one drew comment from other bloggers at the time, haha. But that's what's great about beer - it's alive, and is affected not only by palate and personal preference, but also by age within batches, and various things between batches too.

I found this second swing to be a bit more successful than the first - whisky more evident initially on the nose along with slight peat, and again that big chocolate. It's sweet up front, but moulds into peaty whisky barrels, and wooden dry spirit notes.

There's a bit more of a roasty edge here this time that I didn't really pick up on in the first, and it helps it to be a bit more easy going and less cloying over time. Evolution, you might say. 7.0

Haandbryggeriet Sundland Kreosot

These guys are building up a pretty strong portfolio so far, but this is the first Black IPA trialed from their burgeoning range.

It's one of those 'home-made-jam--printed-on-my-laserjet-printer' style labels as is traditional for Haand, but the beer itself comes out pretty proudly, displaying good opacity and a sticky miniscus of dark tan coffee head. Aroma is inviting too, delivering that dichotomous porter / hoppy IPA combination that makes you stop and think for a while before drinking, just to ponder and identify the different notes in there.

Surprisingly I didn't pick up a great deal of smokiness, which turns out to be opening the batting for this beer in the flavour league cup. Almost bacony levels of roast characterise the opening salvos, but it's all backed up with sufficient hopping and a roasty toasty choc porter standard bearer. It's probably the first really smoky attempt at a Black IPA I have trialled, but it all comes together very nicely really. The smokiness ties the two sometimes disparate brew types together with a common thread.

Good beer, not lifechanging but interesting, flavoursome and refreshing stuff. 8.0

Moon Dog Black Lung Porter

Time for a big smoked porter from the generally insane crew at Moon Dog.

The pour is black true to form, but generated next to no head at all regardless of how much it was encouraged to do so. I'd read reports of overcarbonation from this line elsewhere, perhaps it is a bottle problem as if anything it was slightly the opposite here.

The nose on this really took me back to xeRRex, although the peat character did mellow somewhat by the second day. There's a little choc roast note that strengthens over time in return.

Taste-wise, the peat is there alright but it's nowhere near the pungency or oiliness of that previous entrant. In this formation it combines with the roast, the tobacco throat curl, and the chocolate nature to deliver a more balanced experience. I can't say the palate was too impressive though, it was kind of heavy going throughout and never a really compelling brew. Not much bourbon evident either despite the barrelling technique employed.

An experience beer, of a sort - but I think there are better efforts in both the sane and insane smoked porter brackets. 5.0

Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude

Righto, another chapter in the beer challenges saga.. for this is a beer with a reputation.

It's apt to paraphrase the label at this point: most people say you can't make a beer with more than 5% peat malt.. so these guys went ahead and used 100%. I was expecting this to pour the colour of a scottish swamp but instead it's remarkably light, though oily in texture.

The nose is where the peat really comes to the fore - my word this is boggy, quite remarkable depth of smokiness tending on bacon but also very much vegetable matter, like a compost heap. This smell does everything it can to kick your nostrils in as you try to taste the beer. Once you actually get there, the beer itself is relatively calm in fact - it's smoky as all get out, and leaves you feeling dry of throat. But always everpresent that odour.. hmm. I can see why this polarises.

The kicker? This isn't even the worst (?) one. There's an imperial version. It's 10%. And it's lurking malevolently in the fridge. Sigh. Um. Worth a try I guess? 5.0