Saturday, August 25, 2012

BEER: NAIL BREWING Clout Stout

She's baaaa-aaaack.

Last year I managed to get my first taste of Nail Brewing's hugely regarded and hugely limited "Clout" stout and was totally blown away by it. It was a long wait, but it's back for another year.

I was excited. My camera was also so excited that the battery drained itself and all I could managed with the camera phone was this abysmal effort:

It hardly does it justice. It's like taking a photo of Helen Mirren using a piece of plywood and your fist.

Some facts:
- Limited release of 600 bottles.
- 750ml bottle
- 10.8% abv
- RRP of around $75 (yes, that's for ONE bottle)
- Gold medal, Best Australian Stout, Australian International Beer Awards

This is one for savouring. This is one for the Russian Imperial Stout believers.

Packed with malt. Obscene amounts of malt. There's no surprise that you get a lot of cocoa, chocolate, vanilla and malt. The strong fruit presence is the surprise: red berry, mandarin, plums.

The depth of the flavour is insane. Sure, you can pour you and your mates a tall glass and enjoy it develop as it opens up in the glass, but why not take the whole bottle down yourself and go far, far down the rabbit hole.

If price wasn't a factor, I'd call this Australia's best beer and one of the best stouts in the world. Dollar for dollar, it's still way, way up there.

And if you have the patience to cellar this one for a few years, do it: it's going to get even better.

95%

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