Acorn Gorlovka Imperial Stout

Featured as a selection from the new Good Bottled Beer Guide in BEER August 2009. For more selections see previous post.

ABV: 6%
Origin: Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England
Website: www.acornbrewery.net

Acorn Gorlovka Imperial Stout

Acorn brewery has its origins in the old Barnsley Brewery, well known for its Barnsley Bitter. When this went into liquidation, eventually merging with Blackpool Brewery, brewer Dave Hughes set up his own as Acorn, continuing to brew Barnsley Bitter using the original yeast. Acorn enhanced a well-deserved reputation built on its cask beer in 2009 when it launched its first bottle conditioned line, an imperial stout named after Barnsley’s Ukrainian twin town, known as Gorlovka in Russian, though Gorlyivka in Ukrainian. This beer also uses the renowned Barnsley yeast.

This is a very dark mahogany beer with a big foamy beige head and a big aroma of chocolate, coffee, leather, spiced cream and slight farmyard whiffs. A dry and roasty but lightly textured black cherry fruit and chocolate palate with nuts and a wallop of hops. The finish is very dry and ashy with bitter roast coffee and burry hops, still very impressive though a little more straightforward than the aroma and palate will lead you to expect. At a relatively low gravity for the style, this still packs a lot of flavour, and is a great addition to the range of imperial stouts brewed in Britain.

For more selections from the Good Bottled Beer Guide 2009 see next post.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/acorn-gorlovka-imperial-stout/65504/