We all deserve some salvation. We all deserve cake too, and this offering from Abbeydale Brewery promises the best of both worlds: sustenance for the soul, deliciousness for your belly.
Made with everything you’d expect for a ginger cake including heaps of molasses and sugar to create that rich sweetness, there’s also plenty of fire in the mix. Ginger cake is supposed to be warming verging on spicy, and Abbeydale have transferred that to this stout by not only using ginger, but cayenne pepper.
Right from the off it’s obvious what they’re trying to achieve with this one, with the treacly sweetness oozing out of the can combining with a hint of spice from the pepper. It pours a lovely thick black - though not as thick as cake mix.
The sweet and spicy combination hits the tongue right away and is brought back into balance by the maltiness of the stout, creating a depth of flavour that’s very satisfying.
Unfortunately, as with many things that use pepper, the cayenne pepper starts to override everything else and by the aftertaste all the sweetness had gone, leaving a warm, burning sensation not dissimilar to spicy food but not unpleasant either.
Stormy seas, an old lighthouse, darkest night. A grizzled lighthouse keeper awaits salvation in the form of rescue as the waves crash upon the walls of his crumbling, stone tube.
Or something like that. It’s very moody, and very eye-catching. Like most of Abbeydale’s can designs it has a touch of Monty Python animation about it, none of which indicates the fire that lies within.
We bought this one from our local bottle shop (shout out to Beer Central) in single cans, but if you think you will only find salvation at the bottom of a crate of them then you can buy a pack of 6 for £17.50 from Abbeydale’s site.
