It’s Sunday evening and I’ve been watching GB’s sporting elite harvest medals with the enthusiasm of Rich in a cider apple orchard, greedily plucking them before anyone else can get a look in. And I’ve been toasting their golden glories with something black.
Scottish brewery Tempest’s Elemental is a proper London style porter which I’ve poured into a big wine glass for added toasting sophistication. It slides out of the bottle like molten metal, amassing a beige crown which fades to leave a black coffee sheen scattered with a few clusters of bubbles.
Typically for a dark brew there’s coffee in flavour, but although it has a good amount of flavour the roasty-toasty notes are quite subdued for one so dark. There’s a more obvious injection of chocolate on the nose and taste-buds, and a rich, fresh, fruit hop finish, deliciously clean and dry.
It’s a lovely drink, beautifully balanced with a sumptuous viscosity spritzed with a bit of fizz.
I’m writing up these notes a few days later, the medal haul having reached bewildering levels, while the women’s hockey team are hunting another against New Zealand’s ‘black sticks’.* The Tempest bottle is in front of me, taunting me with its emptiness, while I sip tap water instead. I’m sure I’ll do some more toasting before the week is out, and if no more medals are forthcoming I’ll award my own gold to the classy black Elemental.
The lowdown
Brewery: Tempest Brewing Co., Galashiels, Scotland
Beer name: Elemental Dark Ale
Strength: 5.1%
*3-0. Easy.
The post Beer of the week #85: Tempest, Elemental Dark Ale appeared first on Two Thirsty Gardeners.
from Two Thirsty Gardeners http://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2016/08/beer-review-olympics-tempest-elemental-dark-ale/
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