Morktain Goat Jaffa Ale
Mountain Goat Beer Pty Ltd

On tap at GABS festival, May 2014.

Pours a dark coffee colour, nice head of beige foam, retains quite well. Decent; nice and dark.

Smells mostly orangey, which is good, since it was promised. Chocolate notes come through towards the back, with a touch of sweet spice as well. Pleasant.

Orange on the palate as well, yeah, mostly on the front and back. Very chocolatey malt backbone runs through the whole beer with a few of those other flavours just poking around the edges. Decent flavours, fairly predictably put together. That's not a bad thing but it doesn't quite pop with excitement for me.

Body is decent, touch of warming alcohol on there but not a lot.

Nice jaffa ale. Tastes sweet, chocolatey. Nothing too exciting but a solid beer from a solid brewery.

A collaboration between Mountain Goat and specialty hot chocolate makers Mork made for GABS 2014 in Melbourne, which is where I tried it on-tap.

Pours a deep dark amber hue, clear in the body but solidly weighted. Head is pretty minimal, just forming a few bubbles of off-white that disappear pretty quickly leaving no lace. The beer also looks uncarbonated it's so still in the glass. Hmm.

Immediately after the pour, the spicy melange gave an aroma very much like a south-east asian curry. Chilli and coriander prickled early, but these settle into the more expected jaffa note of citrus and chocolate. Eventually, as things die out a little it even becomes rather mild.

Taste is better though. Plenty of jaffa chocolate on entry before those asian spice characters come through again: chilli, coriander, even a whiff of fermented fish sauce before a solid dose of aromatic galangal on the back. As this settles out we reprise the jaffa motif, which lingers through the aftertaste. Feel is nice and smooth, it works well with the flavours.

Yeah, I like it. Overall it's very interesting with oddities that give it its complexity. I like that the Mountain Goat guys pushed the envelope for this beer.