Saturday, October 8, 2011

BEER: Holgate Temptress Chocolate Porter

Holgate Temptress Chocolate Porter
Quite the temptress
BEER: Holgate Temptress Chocolate Porter
6% alc.

I've spent the day in the car today, driving to Canberra (and back) for the public tasting of the Canberra International Riesling Challenge. Now, after a long day of driving and tasting, the only way to properly refuel is that magical food/drink combination: Pizza and beer.

Tonight's pizza of choice was a Mexicana (cheese, pepperoni, capsicum, onion, garlic, chilli) with anchovies (my favoured additional topping. Love that salty/fishy goodness), matched to a icy cold Little Creatures Pale Ale. Sadly the Little Creatures was too tasty and barely touched the sides, leaving only this Holgate in the fridge. A rather enjoyable back-up plan it was too...

Described as a classic Porter with a 'tempting twist', this is infused with Dutch cocoa and whole vanilla beans, which sounds more like a beer plaything than a proper Porter. Yet this is pretty good - a rich, mid-weight and smoky porter with a sweet, chocolate milkshake vein through the palate that lingers rather nicely through the finish. I can't imagine drinking more than one but, right now, with a Wagon Wheel (quiet night at home dessert of choice) it's going down quite nicely.

3 comments:

  1. Andrew,

    Strangely, had a similar experience on friday, albeit with a much shorter journey to the Wine Centre and back. ;)

    We finished off the night with a Pizza Capers (is that a Sydney franchise? looks it!) pepperoni and vegetarian (with anchovies) pizza with a very dry Brew Boys Ace of Spades Stout to wash 'em down. Not bad... :)

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  2. Haven't heard of Pizza Capers. Good?

    I think the Little Creatures was a better pizza beer and this a better dessert beer. I'm totally fine with two courses and two beers however :)

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  3. Interesting. I could've sworn it was from Sydney. Certainly looks very 'east-coast-ish'. Google search reveals it's originally from Brisbane though... :)

    It's pretty good stuff for a franchise style pizza joint though. Bases are a bit generic, but the range and diversity of pizzas is huge. Enough to make ya wanna go back to try something different each time anyway.

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