Finally trying Diablous

Go back to september last year and many drinkers will remember this one. Durham brewery had matured a batch of their Imperial Stout Templation with a lambic culture. The resulting beer, Diablous was pretty much the first of it's kind in the region and most probably the UK. Launched at Newcastle's The Free Trade Inn for their official 'Sour Power' night.

Anyway Diablous is one intriguing beer. Slightly lively carbonation with little head and a very barnyard like aroma. Diablous is signatured by burnt grain, leather, dark chocolate and sweet liqourish met by a sharp cider/geuze like tang that runs right through it. Then you get interludes of almost red wine like dark fruit, coffee and more leathery roast grain over barnyard like wild yeast. Theres a lot going on here.

This is one of those beers that takes a little time to get your head round, and I think around half way down the glass I got it. Diablous is like an untamed beast yet with nuances and flavour harmonies that almost shine like flashes of brewing brilliance. Sadly, the word 'almost' sum it up more accurately. Think of this more like the notes of a symphony to a masterpiece. All the notes are there to make this masterpiece work. Yet somethere down the line half the orchestra got distracted, decided to make everything more shouty, more dramatic and ended falling slightly out of tune.

What keeps repeating in my mind is that tastes almost like someone's taken a half full glass of rugged imperial stout and topped it up with gueze. It still sort of works in a crazy chaotic challenging sort of way, yet it still tastes more like the variant of a sour beer not a variant version of a stout. Yet all in all I found Diablous to be an interesting beer. The experience memorable mainly for being interesting alone and I can see why there was a lot of divided opinion about it.