h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

But apparently not.

http://protzonbeer.co.uk/news/2013/07/30/bombardier-and-brains-head-for-olympia
"Wales' leading regional brewer Brains will make its seventh visit to GBBF with a range of beers that includes a new double chocolate and bacon porter..."


"...inspired by a trip to the United States."


Okay, chocolate I can understand. Certain types of roasted malt have intrinsically chocolatey flavours, and adding some actual chocolate to a porter or a stout, in moderation, can enhance that. I recently had my first bottle of Sam Smiths Organic Chocolate Stout and it was delicious. It's not the kind of beer I'd want to drink all evening but I'm very keen to pair it with some kind of dessert.

Bacon, however, does not belong in beer, nor does it belong with chocolate. The idea of brewing wacky beers with wacky ingredients has run its course. All the local beer geeks are currently wetting their knickers waiting for Stone's coconut IPA to land in Texas. If it tastes as bad as their coffee IPA I want nowt to do with it. In fact I want nowt to do with it either way. Last night I drank a bottle of Worthington White Shield IPA. It tasted like beer, not something else, it had a soft carbonation, it was delicious. It's a beer that I *would* want to drink all evening, were it not for the fact that it's 5.6% ABV.

And what's this chocolate bacon beer called? A-Pork-Alypse. What else

One of the local breweries is making a Rauchbier. I found it pleasant enough. I'd never had a "smokey" beer before. Then I had to lay off of it once one of the bartenders commented how others have said it tastes like bacon. Hmm... yep. Once that suggestion was in my head, it wasn't going anywhere... Definitely bacony.

Then, I was at my new favorite place for beer, Nobi. http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2013/03/first_look_at_nobi_public_hous.php

They have something called Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier. Nope, not bacon... Beef jerky! Really super smokey. I just had a taste. I don't think I'll acquire one.

I'm not sure about bacon not belonging with chocolate:

http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/product/bacon-truffle-collection/Chocolate_Bacon_Truffle_Collection

I see what you're saying Mags, but in my opinion those are two flavours that don't work (and especially not in a beer). I've never experienced them together in a good way. Perhaps it works in those truffles, but at $48 a lump...

I know what you mean about rauchbiers BG. Aecht Schlenkerla is one of the most highly rated and respected German rauchbiers (and a very recent addition to Texas imports), based in the heart of German rauchbier country, but it's so easy to get flavours of meat out of them. Shiner Smokehaus wasn't bad. I kinda wish they'd bring that one back. I think Live Oak made one recently... or have one planned. I can't recall.

I've heard nothing but good things about Nobi.

Wow... Nobi's reputation reaches to Austin?! It's such a tiny little place in such a poor location. I don't know of the owners were genius or just really lucky. It's like they found the cheapest location they could. It's right by the railroad tracks in a very seedy looking strip center, they've got NO parking to speak of as all the neighboring businesses have reserved all the spaces but one right in front of their door. I usually show up on my motorcycle and park on the side walk in front of the car stereo installers. The place is tiny and packs up really quick and when it does it gets very loud. They have announced that they'll soon be installing acoustic ceiling tiles which should help. They really did decorate the space well though. Once you step inside you forget the dingy exterior setting.

I get the feeling they really didn't expect as much business as they're getting. They could easily fill a space three times as big. Still, it's much better to have a small place that's packed than a huge place that's empty. Especially when first getting started.

I don't know about Austin as a whole, but the Texas beer geeks love Nobi so I often see posts about the place in the beer forums, and the Houston beer geeks have a bottle share there every month.

I need to find that Shell station one of the brothers started with. It's not too far away (well, for Texas), but it's not on my way to anywhere in particular.

A bit expensive to try as an experiment, I'll give you that, Gosho, and I'm not convinced in the slightest that bacon flavoured beer (or any other flavour really, other than beer flavoured) is a good idea. Cider, perhaps, but not beer.

Apples and bacon... that definitely makes more sense. I wonder if my cider-brewing friend would be interested in giving that a go

I tried a bacon flavoured beer (can't remember what it was called), some time ago, at my local... first sip.... ok.... half way though the pint and I really* didn't want to finish it it just doesn't work in beer... Chocolate beers though... in a dark beer, porter, stout, yeh, that can really work and, somehow orange flavours combined with the chocolate, seem to work too, in a couple of porters/stouts I've ahd with that combination anyhow

Rauchcider? Why not?

I'm not sure how you could make that work. The smoke in a rauchbier comes from the malt having been dried over smokey wood fires, then you go through the usual beer brewing process with mashing, boiling, fermenting. But with cider all you do is squeeze apples and ferment the juice.

There are barrel-aged ciders around now. Maybe age the cider in really, really charred barrel?

Belgian witbier has orange peel in it. I could see orange and chocolate working in a stout

Note to everybody else in the whole wide world - Orange Chocolate Stout ©® Gosho 2013

I can make it work.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31gXwWMxo7L.jpg

That's cheating

I've had at least two differnt choclate orange stouts... the most recent was clockwork orange stout, which was rather delishous but again, you'd not sit there drinking ten of them all night, but a couple was nice

Orange and chocolate go together so well. I can see a raspberry and chocolate stout working too, maybe strawberry, maybe not. Wait, I had a strawberry stout not long ago. What was it? Oh yes, Ranger Creek Strawberry Milk Stout http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23672/80941 It was pretty good as I recall. I believe Jester King is making a strawberry sour beer, and this morning I saw a tweet from them about adding blueberries to one of their sour brews. And then there's Atrial Rubicite http://jesterkingbrewery.com/beers/#beers_310

Raspberry and chocolate beers do go well together. At the RenFest I had a Double Chocolate Stout topped off with Raspberry lambic.

It was a very nice desert.

They're still all 'novalty beers', as far as I'm concerned... once its got any 'extra' ingredients put in... but sometimes nice for a change Always supprised that I really don't like the corianda beer... err... the name of which now excapes me... as I like both beer, and corriander... yet, both together I liked the double expresso stout... not sure if they actually* put any coffee in it or not

This is one of those where-do-you-draw-the-line questions. I don't consider kriek or framboise novelty beers, but they're beer with added fruit, and likewise witbier, which has coriander and orange peel added. The difference is that, at least in the case of witbier, it's added the way you add salt to a dish - to enhance the flavour without making the finished article taste of it. That's not the case with fruit lambics, obviously, but they've been around long enough and are simple enough for me to consider them as a genuine beer style. Chocolate beers are borderline, but they're novelty beers in a way that I can live with.

After all, let's not forget that there was a time in the UK when hops were a novelty and were viewed with extreme prejudice. Henry VIII called them "a wicked and pernicious weed", and a lot of diehard ale drinkers wouldn't have anything to do with 'beer'. For a couple of centuries afterwards (and still now to an extent) ale (British, no hops) and beer (European, with hops) were differentiated in all sorts of ways. Ale barrels and beer barrels were different sizes for a while (32 gallons/36 gallons respectively). Breweries made 'ales and porters', porter being a beer - heavily hopped.

It's a bit like coffee, isn't it? I drink coffee because I think the taste of coffee is lovely. But so many "coffee drinks" seem to be purposely designed to taste like mint, or toffee, or strawberry, which seems to miss the point for me.

I'm quite un-fancy in my beer tastes, in that I enjoy the classic flavours of a lot of different styles. Part of the magic of beer is that you can create so many different flavours with the basically the same ingredients. Water, a couple of cereals and yeasts.