Mash Gang: Lesser Evil (England: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)
Visual: Very dark brown and opaque. Creamy brown inch of a head that leaves suds.
Nose: Black forest gateaux. Glacier cherries. Crushed bourbon biscuits. Terry’s chocolate orange. Choc lime hard sweets. Lime jelly.
Body: Rich. Lime jelly. Glacier cherries. Black forest gateaux. Fresh apples. Black berry. Raisin filled strudels. Creamy.
Finish: Lime jelly. Light chalk. Black forest gateaux. Creamy chocolate. Kiwi. Lemon sorbet. Raisin filled strudel. Tannins and dry teabags.
Conclusion: This is very interesting low alcohol beer. There is lots to examine here.
For one, while not thick this is thicker than a lot of low alcohol beers, which is obviously a good thing for a stout. It is very creamy – I had assumed that they really laid on the lactose hard to get that effect, but the can says that no dairy products were used to make this, so it is doubly impressive in implementation!
The flavor is where it gets really interesting. First of all it layers on the dark notes flavor – black forest gateaux, creamy chocolate, glacier cherries. Such a huge flavor delivery and very well done.
What makes me say it gets interesting (and definitely not in a bad way, just unusual) is that lots of green fruit notes come out there as backing notes – lime jelly notes, sometimes fresh apple. A kind of general green jelly fruit sweetness, I’m not sure if it is intended, or just a side effect of getting so sweet a beer at such low malt to keep low abv, but it makes a fascinatingly complex and delicious beer, even if it doesn’t 100% meet style expectations.
So, does the beer have any flaws? Well mainly in the finish – there is a mild set of low alcohol tells with slight chalk and tea bag tannins notes. A tell of the low abv, but much better hidden than they normally are, and better integrated into the style than usual.
Overall, very impressive. One of the best low alcohol stouts I have had.
Background: Grabbed a big set of low alcohol beers from Independent Spirit after one of their mighty whisky tastings recently, to tide me over, of which this was one. Mash Gang have been mixed for me, but that seems the low alcohol issue, even the best find it hard to bat 100% with them, but when they have been on they have been on. This is a beer, as mentioned in the main text, without dairy products, unusual for a low abv stout, which often use lactose to pump up the mouthfeel. It’s described as a chocolate and cherry stout and to that end uses oats, wheat, malodextrine, cherry concentrate, natural cherry flavours and cocoa. Makes sense. Music wise went with M.D.C’s self titled album, but that was less about matching the beer and more the lyrics “No War, No KKK, No Fascist USA” are really resonating with me right now.
