The end of lockdown hasn’t just meant businesses are running a little closer to normal but punters dining out again have a few things to remember too. Was it a medium-rare or rare steak you used to order? The attempts at home were mostly chargrilled. Chips and salad or veggies and mash? And do you have a coffee with dessert or afterwards? What if the dessert is a banana split or some Reese’s Pieces? Is this the 90s? Are we in America? Just how long has this lockdown gone on and what’s it done to my brain?
All of that is a rather long-winded way of saying that Hop Nation have released a trio of pastry stouts and I wasn’t entirely sure in what order to drink them. After staring into their dark abyss for a few moments, I went with the way Hop Nation listed them and kicked off with the Coffee Pastry Stout. If you’re partial to the finest chocolate mudcakes in the land (which are clearly the Woolworths ones), you’ll find a beer that faithfully recreates the experience of tucking into one during an afternoon office birthday party then washing it down with large gulps of coffee so you can escape the tea room as soon as possible. Straight up, it's sweet and rich but beneath those decadent chocolate notes lies a finish of smooth roasted coffee.
Next up was the Banana Pastry Stout, one that oozed with the smell of banana lollies as soon as the can was cracked. That banana flavour coupled with level of chocolate as rich as the rest of the series got me thinking less about a banana split and more about what a Bluth Frozen Banana might taste like. Lucky there’s always money in the banana stand…
Finally, that brings us to the Peanut Butter Pastry Stout. The label may mention peanut butter and chocolate cookies fresh from the oven but the only thing I could think of while drinking mine was the OTT experience that comes from intending to eat one of the cups in a packet of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups but instead devouring both in 30 seconds.
Will Ziebell
Published June 12, 2020 2020-06-12 00:00:00
