Breakfast for a king, lunch for a prince and dinner for a pauper - that’s the saying - and I wonder if a lot of what is being brewed these days, is made with this in mind. All those grains start most beers out on a breakfast footing from the get go, but I feel the analogy is deeper than just that.
Last week’s beer, the mighty Parabola from Firestone (which you can read about here) is a prime example. With its flavour profile of malty grains, coffee and dried fruits, it really is reminiscent of a rather decent, and relatively healthy brekkie.
Of course I’m not suggesting you crack one for in the morning (although a 13.5% imperial barrel aged stout would certainly kickstart your day - ahem) but that suggestion of the first and most important meal, is definitely there and brewers are playing with it more and more. Think of the current popularity for lactose and coffee additions, plus pastry stouts and the like, and you’ll see that we're on trend here.
Perhaps for some beers, this breakfast-like quality is unintentional. At the same time, there are a fair few beers where the inference to breakfast is absolutely deliberate. Beer Geek Breakfast from Mikkeller is one (which you can read about here) and today’s beverage is another, or at least you would have thought so..
The Brewing Projekt’s Applocalypse Caramel Gose has additions of caramel, apple, vanilla, granola, cinnamon and sea salt which, in my opinion, are adjuncts that can’t be used without at least a suggestion of breakfast. To me this looks like Parabola on a diet, where sugar has been switched for fibre and the morning coffee has been shunned in favour of a mineral water. Let’s give it a nibble and see if this the case…
Pours a hazy burnt orange with a white head that quickly dissipates. The nose has a pleasant briny gose hit that opens out with all the additions mentioned above making an appearance, but with the caramel leading the charge. Wow the palate is not what I expected - the nose doesn’t seem that rich (despite the obvious caramel notes), but in the mouth this is really quite sweet - but quite lovely too with the apples making themselves heard. A rich and confected brew - which somehow wasn’t what I was thinking it would be.
From reading the ingredients on the back of the can, to be honest, I had expected something else. At the same time, with a name like Caramel Applocaplypse and a label sporting a toothed caramel monster, arguably it was exactly the beer it was intended to be.
It’s certainly one of the crazier, more audacious beers I’ve tasted this year and maybe it’s just proof that, in these days of adventurous style-crossing brews, you're better off trusting the branding than you are reading the info on the back of the can…
Buy it here.
