What I did want to write about though, mostly to remind myself, was this most decadent beer. This is the 14.6% Bourbon County Brand Stout (2020) and the manager said they had to have this on for their re-opening. It is sublime and manages to hide its strength so that it doesn’t taste like sump oil, as my friend Steve has suggested about some of what I call my decadent stouts. There’s a complexity to the flavours, both with the mouthfeel and the aftertaste. There’s vanilla, caramel, bourbon, toffee, biscuit (well, I think there’s biscuit and I don’t think anyone else does) and chocolate, and it remains beautifully smooth. I don’t know how a brewery can make a beer of this strength this smooth and easy to drink.

I managed to sip my way through this without ever getting bored of it, it’s liquid beauty and I think it might be the best beer that I’ve ever had. It has a staggeringly good rating of 4.47 on Untappd, from just under 40,000 different reviews. I’m looking forwards to the 2021 version which comes out I think towards the end of the year, which will again be aged in bourbon whiskey barrels. I haven’t got excited about the release of a beer before, so this is a first.