“We’ve taken our classic brown ale, increased the recipe to make it Imperial, and then added enough Columbian Heavy Roast coffee to really make it count! Big coffee, balanced by a delicate toasty malt base. Delicious!”

Glassware: English Pint.

Appearance: Very attractive chestnut pour. Hardly any gradient either it’s wall to wall. Only a short tan head which holds surprisingly well. A brilliant cascading lace is strewn down the glass.

Aroma: As anticipated the coffee is nice and direct, super nutty and toasty but with a distinct fruitiness to it. It’s also quite spicy with a very faint hint of cocoa. The base Brown Ale is pretty good too… accentuating the nutty qualities and filling it out with chocolate, toffee, coconut/vanilla, marzipan and soft metals.

Flavour: The coffee dominates here too…as anticipated. But again it’s well tempered as it provides nutty, toasty, chocolate and more delicate fruits and allows the classic Brown Ale flavours of chocolate, vanilla, toffee/caramel and tobacco to mould in. Can’t help thinking a tiramisu-like accent knocks about until it finishes with a roasty/toasty, nutty and chocolatey finish which lingers.

Mouthfeel: Fairly smooth and creamy. Well balanced. Medium body, mild-moderate Co2. The 8.5% ABV though…wow…very well behaved.

Overall: It always irritates us when we buy these amped up versions without first trying the base beer – in this case their standard ‘Coffee Brown’. That aside we really enjoyed this version. It’s big on coffee but well tempered and nicely executed. Solid offering.