A
friend visiting from Sweden brought us a few beers to sample, chiefly
a few Christmas (spiced) Ales, or Julöls, which are apparently
popular there. Among them a Cacao Porter from the Malmö Brewery
which he praised highly. Now both of us are very fond of Porters. I
have a particular Porter recipe which is one of my house beers –
usually available, but, if not, I'd better get brewing. And I'm
reasonably proud of it for its soft, slightly fruity, very creamy
flavour that is the product of the Maredsous yeast culture that has
insinuated its way into my heart (and brewery).
We
started our tasting session with a Christmas Ale of my own invention,
the Ale What d'If (A Molpy's Ale), originally formulated in honour of
the epic and wonderful XKCD comic, “Time” and the frankly insane cast of Timewaiters who were part of turning it into a new artform. Well, it's
quite a nice little Ale. A little sweet for my own tastes, with
Cherry-ish notes, and frankly just a bit cloying. We are way too far
past Christmas, the window when this beer was expected to be at its
prime, so the warming, spicy notes we should get from the Star Anise
and Black Pepper were sadly, but not unexpectedly, long gone.
We
then moved on to the Malmö Cacao Porter. It poured inky black. Not a
hint of light. My own Porters usually have just a hint of Ruby
colouring, but from this thing, nada. Not much head retention, and
what there was disappeared pretty quickly. This may or may not be
true if you drink this beer in its home environment. I have found
that head formation and retention frequently suffers from travel, and
this poor thing had been schlepped all the way from Malmö to
Bibbey's Hoek via Cape Town, under goodness knows what travel
conditions.
Aroma
was soft, slightly fruity and chocolatey with hints of... Coconut?
Not much to comment on, as any strong hop presence would have been
out of line, anyway.
The
first sip was good. Definite, but not overwhelming chocolate flavours
complementing the smooth, creamy Porterishness with its slight burnt,
malt bitter tones that deftly balance the crystal malt sweetness.
Mouthfeel is silky and soft, and the finish clean and fairly dry. In
that first taste I did pick up a very sweet note that seemed out of
place. My second sip confirmed: a distinct canned sweet-corn flavour.
The sweet, sweet flavour of Dimethyl Sulphide – DMS, and usually
considered a distinct fault in most beer styles. Subsequent quaffing
became more and more unpleasant to me as the DMS flavour dominated. I
was happy that there was only one glass to finish.
A
slight hint of DMS is, according to my brewing books, considered OK
for North-European ales. This was a lot more than s light hint,
though. This was pretty much a sledge-hammer. I found it a bit hard
to believe that a well regarded brewery would produce a beer with
such an obvious fault, so I surmise that, being brewed strictly as a
Seasonal ale, the brewery would have expected it all to have been
drunk by now, so a “hint of DMS” would still be under control if
consumed around Christmas. I surmise, too, that a “hint of DMS”
was intentional, since eliminating it is so very easy and so well
understood by brewers: just boil the wort for longer and minimise any
boil condensate falling back into the kettle (but any commercial brew
kettle would be designed to do that anyway).
Basically
I guess that we were quaffing this one well past its scheduled “drink
by” date, so I would not hold it against the brewery – at least
until I've had a chance to taste more of their beers under better
circumstances. I guess I'll have to find a way to go to Sweden for
some beer tasting! Oh what a burden to have to bear. I might even
have to stop in Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic along the
way. Nice dream.
Still,
it was interesting and an education to get a full and genuine
sampling of what an out-of-control, raging DMS fault tastes like. I'd
never experienced the results of a DMS issue before. I was still
tasting canned sweet corn for hours afterwards, even after brushing
my teeth. Not something I'd want to repeat.
So,
Today I Learned about Dimethyl Sulphide...
