Evening approached and the last beer of the day was calling like a siren song to rocks I’d hit too many times before. It was our last orders, and a big Black Perle reflected my shipwrecked image – gold tooth, eye patch and black beard – reminding me of the lengths I’d sailed in search of brews…
“Are you going to pour that or just stare at it?” Helen asked, her question snapping me out of a Pirate fantasy and back to beer reviewing with all the subtlety of a cannon blast or a parrot caw. “My wine’s getting warm.”
Although it was her first day on the job my patience was wearing thin. If only we had been on that boat together, I’d have her walking on that plank, and for such an insult, I’d have her walking off it too – let the sharks write their blogs about and…
“You’re doing it again!”
Surrendering to reality, and all its problems, I opened Weird Beard’s Black Perle, a Coffee Milk Stout made in partnership with Has Bean coffee, and poured the whole bottle into a single pint glass. As its thick black clouds swirled, I uttered a prayer to Cambrinus and Johnny Depp, and we got started. (Finally. Ed.)
A thin, off-white head sits on top of the Perle, and its body is as black as a Guinness. The beer is bottle fermented, but you can’t see any of the sediment because it’s all black. Failing the hand test with absolutely no colours, flying or otherwise, my overly dramatic girlfriend said “No light escapes the Perle.” in an accent which can only be described as unique.
Unsurprisingly the aroma was that of coffee. But perhaps the special thing after tasting a number of coffee beers was that coffee was all we got. In both taste and smell, this is a mild, sweet coffee, very drinkable and enjoyable. No distractions, no hidden chocolate tastes or quadruple espresso blasts, it’s like a cappuccino with one sugar.
Weird Beard are one of my favourite breweries, coming up with very interesting flavours and takes on established formats, but always creating a very enjoyable, drinkable product. Compared to others I have tried, there was little mystery, rather just a straight up, does what it says, solid flavour, and this in itself was refreshing.
A year ago I had the pleasure of trying this beer in a different guise, calling itself the Black Perle Quadruple, at a beer festival. Out of all the beers I tasted that day it stood out the furthest. Called Quadruple, it was 4x the strength of the regular 3.8 which gave it a helluva kick. None the less it’s more mild mannered relation was a very satisfying, clean tasting stout with a single, strong characteristic of coffee.
An exciting new piece of kit we have here at Change from a Tenner, the flavour wheel!
COMPLEXION: Black body with an off-white/tan head. Opaque.
FLAVOUR: Coffee with milk and sugar.
INTOXICATION: 3.8%, taste is solid but not overwhelming.
CHANGE FROM A TENNER: Part of a box set from Honest Brew
Change From a Tenner Beer Blog 