Shattered Dream: Nitro
Siren Craft Brew

Copenhagen 5/6 2024. 44 cl can from Meny, Vermlandsgade, Kbh. S. Can in Sirens usual design with what looks like Cut-up art involving a Romance comics book.

Pours opaque dark brown with a huge beige head. Stable and dense as a Nitro should be. Settles as thin but unbroken layer of foam just covering the surface of the beer. Clinging to the sides of the glass. No lacing to speak of.

Aroma is fairly intense with a sweet odor of dark, roasted malts mingling with som dark alcohol. Chocolate, toffee and a touch of brown sugar. Hints of coffee and liqueur.

Light carbonation. Rather thick, creamy, soft, smooth, almost flat texture.

Flavor is intense with a strong sweetness followed by a moderately strong bitterness. A streak of something salty. Aftertaste is sweetish with a lightly bitter undertone. Lingers for a while. Finish is soft and smooth.

A quite interesting Milkshake.

 

Pours a pitch-black coloration with a huge, creamy, mocha-colored, lasting head. Smells of roasted, caramel malt, chocolate, coffee and just a hint of vanilla also coming through. Taste is a great balance of roasted, caramel malt, distinct milk chocolate, vanilla and coffee, as well as lighter licorice and just a hint of tobacco. Finishes bittersweet, with a light bitterness and some chocolate, coffee and vanilla lingering in the aftertaste. Full, creamy mouthfeel with a rich body and light/medium carbonation.

This makes for a very rich brew that is quite heavy on the milk chocolate, vanilla and coffee notes, with a rather full and creamy mouthfeel. While it comes dangerously close to being too sweet and one-dimensional, those distinct milk chocolate and vanilla notes are balanced just enough by some more roasted malt and coffee, as well as light tobacco and bitterness as well. There's a certain Tiramisu feel to this that is actually pretty intriguing and enjoyable if you like that sort of thing. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a Pastry Stout, which is a good thing in my book, as I'm really not a fan of heavy sweetness in beer, but the balance seems just about right here, while the body and mouthfeel really are sublime.

A 440ml can, with a best before date of 12th February 2022. Poured into a snifter glass.

Appearance: As per the can, poured hard and fast, and it poured black in colour, with a decent cascading effect, and a big two finger beige head that had excellent retention and left lots of nice lacing.

Aroma: Dark malt, light roast, coffee, cocoa, sweet milk chocolate, brown sugar, and vanilla.

Taste: Light to moderately sweet, milk coffee, cocoa, milk chocolate, vanilla, light roasty bitterness, with notes of dark berries.

Mouthfeel: Creamy, smooth, full bodied with soft carbonation.

Overall: An enjoyable creamy smooth sipper with lots of coffee. It was almost too milky sweet for me, but there was just enough roasty bitterness to balance it out.

#1681. Blind-tasted except for the beer's name, ABV% and brewery/country - I haven't read the can's lable or other info on this (yet!)...
L- Effectively jet-black, even held in front of a halogen bulb. Ours with a 12mm super-fine bubble dark tan foam cap/holding well. Looks great right now.... [+10mins, holds well considering the ABV% here].
S- Major coffee, minor dark cocoa, and perhaps a hint of lactose?
T- Creamy, into quite literally a coffee-cream section. Like dousing a tiramisu's sweetened cream topping with coffee-liquer then scooping that all off and spooning it into your mouth. Hard to focus on anything much else beyond that but there is some smoke here too. Certainly rich and perhaps pushing the sweet barrier soon as it warms. (Maybe start fridge cold and see how it evolves as it warms, it seems unlikely you'll want or be able to hurry this anyway).
F- Rich, deep, pungent. Perhaps a beer for deep winter?
O- I think you need to enjoy big coffee/cocoa to have a chance with this, and not actively dislike beers heading off towards the sweet zone. I'm ok with the former but concerned this will get outright sweet as it warms. Sometimes a beer is brewed to be so full on that it loses balance, any subtlety or finesse. I think this is firstly 'statement' and elegance didn't figure on the radar. Fair enough if that's your thing. Interesting to try, too shouty for me to buy again.
Review/scoring all done, now the reveal, I get to read the bottle lables to see what I missed! ===> contains: coffee, cocoa, vanilla, lactose. Well, no wonder it tastes like it does.
440ml can BB: 12/02/22 £6 Bought direct from Siren as part of a pick-your own consignment to London.