Salted caramel in a milk stout sounds like heaven in a can, especially when it's brewed with Hebridean sea salt and Belgian candi syrup.
Sadly though, it wasn't the flavour-bomb of decadence that I expected it to be. I was a victim of my own expectations, because it's a reasonably nice stout, it's just not as flavoursome as I wanted it to be.
Fallen Brewing say it is a sweet, briney, chewy trouble maker; and they're right on the first two. It's just not going to cause much trouble.
The aroma is promising as it's unmistakably sweet, with a touch of roasted flavour that adds a nice burn to balance the sweetness.
The flavour is bitter at first, but then the caramel sweetness kicks in with fudgy notes that really make it true to it's 'chewy' description, with a thick mouthfeel.
The back end of the beer and into the aftertaste is where the first hit of saltiness comes in, with a slightly savoury aftertaste that is definitely briney, with a bitterness from the roast adding another dimension.
It's not that this is bad, it isn't. Chew Chew just doesn't taste like salted caramel. All the component parts are there, but they don't combine to make that flavour, which is a real shame.
Fallen Brewing have a particular can design style, like many breweries. This one is one of the best, with a creamy bottom half of the can and silver top-half divided by a highly-contrasting black soil-like effect round the middle.
The green hop logo of Fallen Brewing is in the middle of the black band around the middle, with the name of the beer and it's description in prominent black on the bottom half.
You can get it from Fallen Brewing's shop for £3.10 a can. I'd recommend you try it for yourself and let us know if you think I'm wrong about the flavours.
