Hardknott Rhetoric #2

Brewed by Hardknott
Style: Imperial Stout
Millom, England

Serve in Snifter

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Bottle. Bronze with a small head. Full bodied and powerful. Hits you very hard at first but still very easy to drink. Lovely modern label and definitely a hard hitting beer.

Keg at Sportsman, Huddersfield. It pours very dark ruby with a small beige head. The nose is roasted malt, sweet cherry, jam, candy cane, black liquorice and cola. The taste is sweet cherry, cherry cola, sticky fruit, oily, light roast, treacle, mint chocolate and a touch of alcohol warmth. Full body, low carbonation and viscous mouth-feel. Not much too it really, quite sweet...but more drinkable than the abv suggests.

Bottle from Beer Ritz, Leeds. Pours a deep cola brown, almost no head. Aroma is perfume, black cherry, dark fruits, some dark and milk chocolate and just maybe, a little bit of cola too? May just be the cherry giving an olfactory memory. Taste is really rich and intense - not too far from a Quadrupel, with dark forest fruits (including cherries, of course) dominating from the start, before some caramels and spice, then a nice bitter finish as it goes down. Really long, flavourful and balanced finish, with that bitterness nicely tempering the lingering sweetness. Full bodied, and a bit too flat, a little more CO2 would’ve mproved the mouthfeel and make it feel less heavy. And though I prefer #1, it’s still very, very good.

330ml bottle. Pours very dark brown with no head. Aroma is oily roast with a hint of cherries. Taste is mostly oily roast with a cherry sweetness on the finish. Some alcohol warmth. Like several Hardknott beers I’ve had, just too flat and lifeless.