It's been Sheffield Beer Week, and the guys at Shakespeare's have done us proud: a partial tap takeover by Torrside; a mini-festival upstairs of 15 beers brewed in collaboration with members of staff; and a pin of Taxi Vader on the bar, a 20% imperial stout brewed by Steel City in collaboration with Brasserie Fantome. Considering that a third of a pint holds almost the same amount of alcohol as half a bottle of wine, I decided to enlist the help of my daughter and her boyfriend, and we shared half a pint between us. The beer is very dark and treacly, with a hint of elderberries on the nose. The mouth feel is almost gloopy, but the surprise is that the beer is hardly sweet at all. The dominant flavour is umami, reminiscent of marmite, presumably because of the yeast, with hints of bonfire toffee. I forgot to ask how much it cost, but in a round of three halves (the other two both Torrside: Discretion mild 3.9% and Valour imperial stout 7.7%) coming to £13.45, I would guess it was around £8.
My strongest beer to date
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