For space reasons, I had to shorten the name of that first beer for the heading. On the can, it’s actually called Depth Perception Pastry Stout. Ten words, eight of them being just a description of what the beer is, joining One Drop in “big silly name” territory.
Jeepers creepers. Yes, there's banana: that sort of fried banana sticky sweetness. Yes, there’s maple syrup. I found the chocolate and blueberry to sit a little lower, but yes, they were still there as well. There’s so much in there that it’s almost not a stout; the beer’s a deep brown more than a black, and you can see through the liquid at the edges. It’s like Helios put in more adjunct ingredients than malt. For all this, though, it’s surprisingly not too sweet in the mouth, and there’s still some balancing bitterness at the end.
Don’t expect to get much more detail, even if you go straight to head brewer Jake Harrison.
“I think the name says it all in terms of what's in there. There’s a lot going on.”
Then we get to Kronos, which has been around long enough (albeit as an annual release that changes each year) that Jake doesn’t mince words here, either.
“Imperial stout. No nonsense."
But in absence of nonsense, the 2024 release of Kronos Imperial Stout still has plenty going on as well: sweet up front, bitter in the finish, thick as a bulldog and sleek as an Afghan.
While it’s an imperial stout like last year, in this version Jake has replaced the roasted barley of last year’s with roasted wheat, shifting the flavour balance from roastiness to coffee. There’s also a dusting of chocolate and a sweet boozy streak in there, too. It’s like you’re drinking a triple shot cappuccino, and you wonder if the cute barista spiked it with Kahlua as a weirdly unethical way of flirting with you.
Jake’s loving this year’s iteration so much that he keeps being drawn back to it, having a cheeky can at 10pm against his better judgement before flopping into bed for a snorefest. And let’s be honest: there are worse ways to end the day.
Mick Wüst
Published August 26, 2024 2024-08-26 00:00:00
