Orange Mocha Frapp Stout
Tiny Rebel Brewing Co.

 

Beer #2 of the 2018 advent calendar.
This one was inky black, with a slight orange hue to the dark but thin head.
Carbonation was almost non-existent after pouring.
Big-time coffee flavor and smoky roasting notes, while the orange flavor hung around in the background.
Too sweet for my tastes, though, and the lack of bubbles made it hard to enjoy more.

The beer really opens up when it warms allowing the orange notes to lift the coffee and chocolate flavours. Well made beer that shows the skills of two of Great Britain’s most innovative brewers. Part of the craft beer advent calendar

330ml bottle - day 2 of the 2018 Craft Beer Advent Calendar, which is apparently a collaboration-themed affair (half of it, anyway), so this one was produced in conjunction with Fierce Beer out of Scotland.

This beer pours a pretty solid black abyss, with the scantest of amber basal edges, and two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly brown head, which leaves some decent pitted limestone wall lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of candied orange peel, milk chocolate, gritty and grainy cereal malt, cafe-au-lait, some mild earthy yeastiness, and very tame leafy, herbal, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, acrid orange rind, medium dark cocoa powder, stale coffee grounds, cold cream, and more well-understated earthy, musty, and floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly plain in its palate-pleasing frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and mostly smooth, with a touch of random char sort of messing with the ideal at this point in the process. It finishes off-dry, the cocoa and orange essences presiding.

Overall - yeah, this at times does seem like you're eating a Terry's Chocolate Orange with your morning cuppa Joe ('tis the season!), which is all fine and good. Full of flavour, and a worthy entry in this year's package, IMHO.

 

Collaboration with Fierce Beer.