"The downfall of being a great beer lover and enthusiast is a tendency to hoard. Nobody I know is as guilty of this as I. As such, I've come to realise in recent months that I really need to start working through my already sizeable bottle stock before purchasing anything else this year, if for no other reason than to try the beers I’ve spent my money on whilst they’re still at their best. Added to this is the realisation over the last few months – based on certain depressive life situations – that life is too short not to drink the great beers I have available to me. I also need to find new encouragement and inspiration to write again. I have never wanted this to be a beer review blog (with the exception of Advent) but all the above factors have led me to begin a series of “Stock Clearance” posts where I drink beers within my hoard that really need drinking for reasons that will be explained."
"I shall further clarify that my beer hoard started to grow around the turn of year between 2011 and 2012. To that point, most of my enjoyment of beer was spent within the confines of the pub or on a Saturday night in when the beer to be drunk in the evening was bought in the morning of the same day. The only beers that entered into “storage” were a bottle of Brewdog’s Abstrakt: 02 (that I think was eventually drunk sometime in 2012) and a Fuller’s Vintage 2008, purchased in 2009 and that is still in my hoard to this day."
Whilst the beer contemplated here has been in my stock for too long a period, it wasn't drunk with the particular intention of blogging about it. That was until I tasted it and knew that I had to write about it.
After writing rather unfavourably about Omnipollo's collaborative effort Brewmance, I was determined to give them another go. I don't have a great deal of experience with this nomadic brewery, but both the Nathalius and Nacken were excellent. This bottle of 11% Imperial Stout, Hypnopompa, was purchased in Beermoth, Manchester. I picked it up out of curiosity when spotting the gloriously understated label. Flipping the bottle over and mention of the words Marshmallows and Tahitian Vanilla Beans in an Imperial Stout were enough to sell this to me. It sounds terrific. Brewed at De Molen I believe, this beer seems to have had its critics for being too flat, and the website does state that it was intentionally brewed this way. We shall see how that works out.
Omnipollo - Hypnopompa - 11% - in stock for 9 months.
This beer does indeed pour nearly completely flat amongst it's impenetrable darkness. It fills the room instantly with its aromatic sweetness. I don't even need to raise my glass to my nose to get a huge chunk of dark chocolate, but those marshmallows suddenly dominate the room. Light and fluffy but sneering at you. At this point my glass is two foot away from my nose. With the glass at your nose, it's like smelling a huge bourbon reserve. There's so much caramel and popcorn over a lightly smoked, coffee scent. So after that interesting nose and description - I'm almost knocked into silence by the taste. What is this? This is so strong, so rich, so sweet yet so balanced. The main thing though is it's so delicious. It's like a whiskey infused vanilla latte, mixed with a hot dark chocolate that's been topped with marshmallows allowed to melt into the froth. It stays with you, warming within the throat and slinking down like the last dram of the evening. I have to recheck that I don't have the barrel aged version. I don't even want to extend on the sticky mouth feel and medium body as it feels tedious to continue to intellectualise this beer. It's been over 12 months since I've been knocked into silence by a beer but this, for me, is that good.
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