Buxton: Omnipollo: Yellow Belly (England: Imperial Stout: 11% ABV)
Visual: Black. Thin brown bubbled head.
Nose: Snickers bars. Chocolate ice cream. Lots of peanuts. Creamy. Very milky coffee.
Body: Creamy – condensed cream. Snickers. Big amount of peanuts. Or possible Reeses peanut cups. Bitter cocoa. Sugar dusting. Boozy feel. Thick texture. Treacle. Brown cane sugar.
Finish: Caramel. Peanuts. Bitter cocoa dust. Digestives and shortbread. Treacle. Brown sugar.
Conclusion: Damn. Think of a blended up snickers bar, but in a beer. I would say a “marathon” bar for old times sake, but, let’s face it – fighting long dead linguistic battles is not going to win me any favours here.
Anyway, this is stupid levels sweet, awesome stupid that is. There is not a huge range of notes but they are very well defined and well themed as well. Very sweet imperial stouts can become over exposed very easily, but thankfully this came when I have not had many of them for a while, so as a fresh again experience I absolutely loved this.
This is a very creamy beer as well, doesn’t hide the alcohol character either, but instead uses it as a boozy thick character. No burn, no harsh edges, but there is no mistaking this is a big beer.
I want to talk more about this beer – about its creamy texture, the sheer dominance of peanuts to peanut butter flavours over the bitter cocoa – but so much can be summed up in the few short words. Snickers bar beer. It deserves a better description than that, more detailed and florid, but that is what it is. I mean I could go more into comparing to Reeses peanut butter chocolates but I would kind of be over egging the whole thing. You get the idea, right?
So, please accept my apologies- I’m saying less than I should. Let us all just accept that this is a dangerously sweet, dangerously high abv, dangerously high quality beer. Take your time, keep off sweet imperial stouts for a while, then treat yourself to this. It is worth it.
Oh and fuck the far right and racists in general.
Background: Grabbed at Independent Spirit. First made as part of the rainbow collaboration where each team of breweries was given a color theme to use. Ok, that bottle kind of looks like a Klan uniform, which kind of worried me until I realised that was the point, and why it was called Yellow Belly. I can’t find the original quote but to paraphrase they said this was brewed with no nuts, because the Klan didn’t have them either. I loved that so I grabbed a bottle.
I was going to disagree slightly with the bottle quote about acting anonymously as part of a group being one of the worst cowardice, by pointing to a counterpoint of protesting groups who require anonymity to prevent retribution from the authorities, until I found a fuller quote to put it in context
“The political situation throughout Europe is in turmoil right now, National Front, Sverigedemokraterna, British National Party, EDL, Dansk Folkeparti, Vlaams Belang, Lega Nord, Fremsrittspartiet, Sannfinländarna, Golden Dawn….the list goes on and on. From Omnipollo’s Henok Fentie; “One thing that struck us while the preliminary political polls where being presented during election night was that the actual support for the Swedish fascist party was in reality 40% higher than what people had disclosed when asked (face to face) what they voted for just after casting their ballot. At the same time the polls were more or less accurate when it came to other parties on the political scale.” What does this mean? One thing that it could mean is that although people vote extreme right they are on average not as prone to admitting to it as people voting for other parties are. Being a coward can mean many different things, but protesting anonymously at the expense of people’s freedom and right to co-exist without showing your face is one meaning that is particularly relevant at this moment in time.
So, with all this in mind, for our ‘Yellow’ beer, we made an 11% Peanut Butter and Biscuit Imperial Stout. Except there are no peanuts or biscuits in it. And then we dressed it in the most hateful, cowardly-anonymous costume we know of.
This beer, whilst attempting to make a commentary on the current political winds blowing through Europe, is above all, meant to be enjoyed as a celebration of all things new, open minded and progressive. Taste, enjoy and don’t be prejudiced.”
I can’t disagree with that, and will raise a glass to mocking racists everywhere.
