Saturday afternoon at  Derby CAMRA's summer festival and standing room only has already been and gone. Splayed on the stairs, skulking behind pillars, sardined into the main hall... it's busy busy busy. But a thirsty toper can always conjure up some table space. In the quiet room, in a corner, opposite a ticker who seemed lost in the minutiae of his rapidly receding hit-list. My claim staked, my intentions simple: cheese and cider; dark beer and chocolate.

My sweet tooth is legendary - alongside my salty tongue, sour face and umami mouth - yet I prefer a cider or perry that's sandpaper-dessicated. I plump for the driest cider on the menu, Badger's Spit by Naish. After all, who wouldn't want to drink Badger's Spit? Lots of green apple tang, almost lemon-pithy on the tongue. I could see myself falling off a hay bale after a few of these.

A glass of cider always has me hankering after a good lump of cheese. Thankfully, Derby is one of the few festivals I've been to that has a decent cheesemonger on site. Morgan's is a stalwart of the city's Eagle Market and their ever-busy stall offers a great range of cheeses both British and continental. They've nailed their beerfest offering; a platter with a couple of cheeses, some crackers (or bread) and a dollop of red onion marmalade. 

With a dozen-ish cheeses on offer I chose two of my old favourites, an aged Red Leicester and Snowdonia Cheese's sublime Black Bomber. The latter has a creamy feel that belies its name, smooth for an extra mature cheddar but with a real depth to its flavour. If the Badger's Spit bites, then Black Bomber curls its lips and flashes its teeth at you. Put together, they get along famously. For the dry, slightly sweet and nutty Red Leicester I plumped for a perry. The Butford Organics was on the sweet side of medium for me, but its lemonesque flavour and low tannins kept it refreshing and palate-cleansing.

That was lunch. What to have for dessert? Dark beer and chocolate seemed blindingly obvious. And I do like the blindingly obvious. I'm a sucker for Fuller's London Porter and with the brewer having their own bar at the fest, the blindingly obvious option became even moreso. But what choc? Well, Burton-based Merry Berry Truffles had plenty to choose from. They are regulars at beerfests and aren't afraid to play with flavours. As their dark chocolate pieces with chilli and orange proves.

London Porter on cask reveals its ashy edges as casual charcoal marks your palate. The chocolate is more sleight-of-hand. Oily orange seeps when you hold a piece in your mouth, the slender slab collapses, a subtle chilli delivery system replaces citric tang with prickly heat. A mouthful of porter is an abrupt reset. orange to ashes, chilli heat to charcoal cool. And then do it all over again.

One last pairing? Go on then. Double Top Brewery have really impressed me recently and Tungsten Stout is no exception. With a robust body and a keen coffee roast about it, a handful of Merry Berry's chocolate covered coffee beans proved the perfect partner. Shards of beans and mocha echoes in the beer made for a great way to round out the session.

Well, almost. Fuller's Golden Pride had just come on - the only beer left on sale at their bar - so I just had to have a third. Or a half. Paired with... something caramel perhaps? Maybe spicy? In the end I went for the only viable option; pair it with another half pint of the same. Because, just sometimes, the best thing to pair with beer is another beer.

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Now then. I like coffee flavours in beer. But I also like coffee flavours in chocolate. Which one is better? There's only one non-Harry-Hill way to find out: drink 'em, eat'em, blog 'em.

Let's start with the Brewdog Coffee Imperial Stout. It pours an opaque brown washing away to black edges. A flicked wrist offers a light roast coffee/hazelnut puree aroma. So far, so promising. So, a sip: bitterness. Burnt coffee grounds. Harsh. Dry. Some longer gulps knocked the rougher edges off but there was still a resinous, off-puttingly hoppy lick to it. Even the scorched coffee got lost towards the end.

Perhaps some chocolate can redress the balance. Lindt Coffee is billed as dark but actually smells and feels milkier. Digging around showed that it was 47% chocolate, so it was actually more towards the milk end of the spectrum after all. A first nibble gave an understated coffee flavour with a grainy feel, offering just enough resistance against the tongue. Paired with the Brewdog, the beer does taste better, that slight chocolate sweetness taking the edge off the hops and letting the beer drop a gear to achieve a frothy quality.







Shit or bust time. Perhaps a hardcore chocolate can save the day. And in my collection, there was none more hardcore than Hotel Chocolat's The Purist - 100% Ecuadorian cocoa. No shine to the bar, an almost dusty aroma, rolling the first sliver around the mouth you feel pure cocoa powdering around. The first bite brings bitterness but also a surprising cream note with dusty intensity breaking in waves. Alongside the Brewdog, the beer is elevated into a different league. Coffee now climbs out of the glass, jolting into the chocolate palate in a reverse mocha moment.

Only one way to go now - Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast. I love this beer; it appears three time on my unwritten list of 'beer experiences yet to enjoy' (namely; drink more than one bottle of it to myself in a sitting, drink a bottle of it for breakfast, drink any of the Beer Geek Brunch varieties). It's so soft, the oatmeal in it working wonders to round out the body and carry the light cofee and creamy chocolate flavours. Such a stunning chocolate nose, too. It's a very easy going beer, no overloading on the palate, just enough consistant carbonation tp keep pushing out the flavours.

Alongside the Lindt bar it's... not much different. But dip some of The Purist in and you're mainlining cocoa. It's smothering your nose, dusty chocolate coats your palate, washy coffee intensifies the flavour. It's almost too flucking much. And hurrah for that - great beer and great chocolate desrves to take your taste buds to the edge and back again. A hyperreal combination.

Mucho kudos to Craig Garvie for the Brewdog Coffee Imperial Stout and to BEERmerchants.com for the Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast. >

It's the last of the Brock. Four days down, the last of the nine pints tasting as fine as the first. There's a latent choccie note lurking that spurs me into another pairing, so the chocolate bag is raided for something suitably dark.


I picked up a bar last week in Sainsbury's made by Seeds of Change. They produce a range of organic foods, including chocolate, and invest a percentage of their revenue into research and promotion of bio-diverse agriculture. Their dark chocolate with hazelnut and walnut sounded ripe for pairing with a dark beer.






The Thornbridge Brock is a smooth stout that seems to only have an annual outing. Shame, really, as it's impressively dry and lightweight drink. The drop from my makeshift stillage gave it a decent fluffy head and a waft of roasty chocolate. Kelly at the brewery had told be to ignore the 'best before' date, saying that a month beyond it would make for a tastier beer. And, he was right - the chocolate notes are deeper than I remember, seems to be a fuller body too... though of course that could be down to recipe-tinkering this time around?


A nibble of chocolate next. Fairly thin bar, the crunchy nut bits making for a good gritty, brittle feel. The chocolate reveals itself late on the palate, decent depth with just a hint of sweetness from the hazelnut. It's one of the most moreish bars I've tried recently, not so bitter that a row or two will suffice. I had to slow myself up, otherwise it would have disappeared swiftly.

These work well together, the cream edge to Brock starts dragging the vanilla out of the chocolate. The smooth silk palate of the beer complements that shard-driven dryness in the chocolate and coaxes out a sweetness that seemed to be subdued before.


Here's a first for me - still got half a pint left but all the chocolate's gone. I'm almost tempted to go open the bar I bought for my wife (milk with apricot and cashew) to see how that pairs up.... but I've got my eye on a tripel to go with that ;-)

And because one of you will ask... yes, the chocolate balanced on top of the glass *did* fall in, I *did* use my fingers to recover it and it *did* taste a little of beer. Mmmmm. Beer chocolate....
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Time for another Pete Slosberg-inspired tasting. Take a caramel centered chocolate and pair with a chocolate stout. Is the result double the fun or twice as nasty?


Let's start with the beer - Young's Double Chocolate Stout . It certainly had good carbonation with an audible effervescence, its rocky head soon settling to an off-cream band.

There's obvious chocolate on the nose, but it's a curious dusty drinking chocolate. No, scrub that - it's liker a creamy hot chocolate gone cold. There's a lick of sweet chocolate too, like a syrup shot. Unsurprising, perhaps, given that it uses chocolate essence as a flavouring.

With little roast up front, the sweet chocolate taste is slightly cloying on the palate. Perhaps a chunk of chocolate would change things? I'd struggled to find anything vaguely artisanal so I'd settled for Cadbury's Dairy Milk with Caramel. It was surprisingly good - bit on the cold side but the caramel filling was soft and deep flavoured. The next slurp of beer was bitterer - the darker dry chocolate flavour now placed in sharp relief to the sustained sweetness of the caramel.

Then it all went a bit strange.... the chocolate got tastier, the beer weaker. The washy dark chocolate from the beer enhanced the caramel filling of the Dairy Milk, but with each sip the beer became thinner in flavour and higher in bitterness, any roasted notes having deserted.

I expected more from the beer; instead of interesting chocolate bolstered by coffee and roasted malts, I got flavours that started heavy-handed and ended up bitter and washy. I found it disconcerting to read the label's assertion that the beer was 'best served chilled'. To me, for a dark beer, that's tantamount to an admission that there's little flavour in there to be savoured in the first place.

Perhaps another beer would make a different impression. I had a bottle of Marble Chocolate knocking around; not strictly speaking a stout but it seemed robust enough for this tasting. And it looked good from the off, a nearly black body with a dappled cream head, clear roast on the nose alongside a clean creamy chocolate flavour. A far better beer than Youngs, so I'd high hopes for the pairing effect.

Well, the chocolate tasted fantastic, that first merging of the beer's roasty notes with this surprisingly tasty caramel. And then... the next mouthful of beer was quite bitter, as if my taste buds had given up on sensing sweetness. More chocolate was fine, more beer was gross - far too bitter, no sense of roasted malt, harsh bittering off-coffee flavours.

Overall, not a very successful pairing. Perhaps the thick milk chocolate swamped the beers, perhaps the beers just didn't have strong enough roast characteristics to cope. If anyone knows how I can get hold of Cocoa Pete's Caramel Knowledge in the UK (or, indeed, any of the Cocoa Pete range) then do let me know as I'd love to try the pairing again with what is obviously a far more robust chocolate. In the meantime, I may have to find a full-blooded stout and a darker caramel bar (??) and try this again sometime soon.
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Brewer turned chocolatier Pete Slosberg has some great beer and chocolate pairings. I thought I'd try a variation on one of his staple pairings - milk chocolate with nuts alongside a Belgian tripel.


Tripel Karmeleit is a beer I discovered, like many a tourist before me, during a long weekend in Brugge some years ago. I brought home bottles along with the branded glass, anticipating the recreation of Belgian bar style in my own living room. OK, I didn't have the nicotine-stained ceiling or mad cyclists clattering into the windows but the sweet wheat notes took me right back. I have a bottle every now and then, usually when Sainsbury's flog it off on offer, so it seemed the perfect tripel for this tasting.

It's a damn fine beer that appeals at every stage; massive pillowy head, incredibly effervescent golden body, ripe wheat nose, a desiccating crispness, massive candied hit before the uncomplicated clean finish.

Now, Pete couples a tripel with his Nuts So Serious bar, roasted hazelnuts and roasted, salted pistachios in milk chocolate. The closest I could find was a hazelnut and milk chocolate bar made by Lindt, with pieces of caramalised hazelnut in there as well. It's smooth stuff, the right side of creamy with a little dryness in the hazelnut. The caramalised chunks add some sweetness that starts to balance out the bar. Not the kind of chocolate I'd normally plump for, the nuttiness works well although the chocolate is rather too smooth.

So, let's put both together. First impressions - Karmeleit's candied sugar and the chocolate's caramalised chunks combine to give a real sweet suckerpunch, almost overwhelming. The milky feel round your mouth softens the yeasty bite, more beer conjures up soft pears in a sweet, nutty sauce. More chocolate brings candy overload once more. I love the way the hazelnut works with the soft fruit and spices in the beer but the colliding sweetness threatens to overpower.

A fun combination, particularly if you have a sweet tooth. Sometime in the future, I'd like to try a tripel against a salted chocolate to see if it achieves balance on the palate. But if spun sugar shock is your thing, Karmeleit and Lindt Hazelnut could work for you. >

Greenwich brewers Meantime have made a name for themselves with a range of award-winning bottled beers. As they brew a coffee beer, a chocolate beer and stouts/porters offering both flavours, they may be able to offer me all I'm looking for. But can they deliver?




First off was London Stout. Knowing this is brewed without roasted malts, I was expecting a smooth beer but this was silken to the point of offering no resistance. And little in the way of flavour, too. A little washy vanilla, a drop or three of americano. Perhaps I shouldn't have followed the Meantime tasting notes and chilled the beer as the subtlety felt frozen out of it. In fairness, there was some cocoa powder itching around the edges towards the end, but it developed too late for my liking. By no means a bad bottle but underwhelming.

Could the chocolate beer excite me more? Now, I've tried this before and, frankly, found it to be a superb after-dinner beer. This bottle poured with a thick head like a cappuchino gone wrong. Certainly a sweet aroma - my wife thought it too banana-esque - whereas I thought more of hot chocolate bubbling on the stove, on the point of curdling. The flavour had two chocolates fighting against each other, one sweet and creamy - almost cloying - alongside a dusky darker tang (cooking chocolate?) like a bar only recently snapped.

On the palate, those chocolate flavours are tempered by a bittering coffee shot. Consistant carbonation means that a swift flick of the wrist reactivates the head into a slowly disappearing pillow of coffee froth. This could be a car-crash, but Meantime have produced a bitter-cream beer that deserves the awards and shouldn't be denigrated as a novelty flavoured ale.

The London Porter is a longtime favourite of mine, so it would be rude not to crack open a bottle. And a fine looking bottle it is, too; champagne bottled with cork closure. And it's chock full of malts, coffee crema tussling with spent charcoal and brooding dark chocolate. That first sip - OK, first gulp - brings bitter chocolate and an assured hop astringency. There's some slight caramel before the sweeping coffee and chocolate crescendo. Damn, I love this beer.

I tried the Coffee Porter on cask recently and liked it. I rated the same beer bottled (then just called Coffee) and wasn't too impressed. Time to try the bottle again, then; now billed as Coffee Porter and rejigged with - I think - less coffee than before. Well, there's certainly a better balance, with pronounced coffee notes on the nose and more deep-set roasted chocolate flavours than before. The coffee cushion is sat on by a fat chocolate arse, an indentation of itching beans remains in the mouth. I'm impressed by this - clearly the recipe has changed and Meantime have achieved a balance that's enviable where these flavours are involved.

I'm impressed overall by these Meantime beers. London Porter has always been a fave beer and was an enjoyable glug. The Chocolate beer was still as good as I remembered it and one that I'd gladly buy in for Christmas and try to bring beer-sceptics I know over to the dark malty side. And the Coffee Porter was a surprise - a vast improvement on the previous bottled version and even better than the cask version. Only the London Stout disappointed - I may have to give it another go.

All this beer gave me an appetite for chocolate, so I raided the war chest for some single origin bars. Thorntons are currently selling a selection so I gave them a go.

Papua New Guinea is a 35% solids milk chocolate described as 'exotic and aromatic'. Very vanilla with a little lemon. Fairly good for a milk chocolate but could be cloying in any more than a sampler bar.

Ecuador edges to 40% solids and is billed as 'fruity and floral'. Sounds like a good golden ale! This bar offered more caramel and quite a keen citric vein. A bit nondescript - still rich but no killer flavour for me.

Mexico sees the step up to dark chocolate with 66% solids. This was described as 'fruity and herbal'; I got oranges, lemons again, all mixed in a surprisingly creamy finish. Just a hint of licorice on the nose.

Sao Tome steps up the solids to 70% in a 'fruity and bittersweet' bar. I like the bitterness here, still an underlying fruit feel but the thicker chocolate feel starts to stick to you teeth. The feel gets softer in the mouth and ends up being a pleasingly well balanced chocolate that I could have more of.

Last bar is Tanzania, 75% solids described as 'bitter and intense'. Well, I demand a recount. Decent aroma, strong chocolate with a little vanilla. The astringent taste is there, but it needs working round your mouth to release it at the end of a rather oily palate.

Interesting to have these chocs, but to be honest they all felt a little samey. Tanzania's bitter edge was as average as Papua New Guinea's vanillaness. I enjoyed yomping through the range but wish one of them had been knockout. As it is, I feel like I have a little bit of chocolate sick in my tummy.

Time for bed. (Burp).

Thanks to beermerchants for the beers. All photos (c) Meantime Brewing.

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Winter's on the way and my tastebuds crave cacao and Coffea arabica. There's a number of beers that have chocolate or coffee flavours to them. And plenty that would go well with a slab or two of Hotel Chocolat's finest. So, let's kick off the chocolate-coffee trip with a swift trip round Derby on a wet Sunday.


Breakfast at the Babington Arms kicks the day off. And what finer accompaniment to a plate of bacon and eggs than a half of, er, Robinson's Chocolate Tom? To be fair, I finished breakfast first. This beer promised a lot, although I'd have liked to see a full-blooded 8% Old Tom with chocolate flavours rather than this watered-down version. Truth be told, it was a poor compromise; none of the juicy autumnal fruits of the barley wine, too much of a drinking chocolate cloy.

Decent coffee was called for and Grand Cafe Caruso know how to make it. Espresso that's short, strong and hot. Cappuccino that's the proper three thirds of coffee, milk and foam. I'll take either/or, the former for the quick hit, the latter for the slow burn over a crossword or two. Next stop was to pick up a collection of single origin chocolate bars from Thorntons - I'll be trying those out later this month alongside a range of beer styles.

Then it was more-beer time. The Brunswick offered its usual Sunday lunchtime entertainment of landlord Graham relieving regular Lou of a few quid courtesy of another ill-advised wager. But the two new beers were mediocre - sorry, Graham - so I moved on next door. And what a result awaited at the Alex - Dark Star Espresso. Here was an effortless beer, ridiculously easy drinking given the clearly defined coffee flavour. Lifted by Challenger with a solid roasted base, I'd have been more than happy to take another one of these. This could have been a bitter mess, but the coffee levels work wonders for me.

A couple of undemanding beers followed at the Smithfield (Millstone Royal Oak) and the Royal Standard (Moorhouse Pendle Witches Brew). Frankly, I only popped into the pubs as it was slapping it down with rain. I needed a good coffechoc beer to get me back on track, so chanced my arm at Derby's other Spoons.

The Standing Order is one one those that looks great inside (huge high ceilinged former bank) but usually has an undemanding beer range. Not today, though - the bar was bristling with ten guests as part of the autumn festival. And there at the end was Meantime Coffee Porter. There'd been a deal of debate about the beer on Scoopgen, some finding it thin, others revelling in its depth. I was glad to find it in fine form with sustained bitter coffee and a robust roast note. In comparison to the Dark Star - a close second.

Glad to have tried these two beers on cask. There are plenty of bottles in the war chest and a variety of chocolates on their way. Next post on this topic will look at some of those bottles.
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