Midnight Blinder - Foreign Stout

Midnight Blinder was an old Goldfinch Ale, a microbrewery that was located in what is now the skittle alley of our brewery tap Tom Brown's in Dorchester. I'm told that in those yonder days Midnight Blinder was simply liquored back to produce Flashman's Clout, which in turn was further diluted to produce Tom Browns. Not so any longer, both Tom's and Flashman's have their own grist formulations with the latter containing a significant amount of dark chocolate malt to give it its complex malty flavour.

Midnight Blinder was going to get its own grist recipe too and it was going to be far cry from its original incarnation. I decided to go  much darker with this 5% stout than Flashman's, all the way to 90EBC. Verging on Ink black, only seriously heavy imperial style porters and a handful of hardcore black IPA's coming in higher.

The hop profile was also going to be combination of old and new. Challenger for bittering and East Kent Goldings in for flavour would then relent to American hops in late for an aroma to match its look. I decided upon Galena and the now often overlooked Cluster, a predecessor to Cascade. Both of these hops can be too much for lighter beers to handle and impart a zesty, sort of blackcurrant hit to the aroma which combines really well with the large amount of chocolate rather than roast malt I decided to add for a sweeter character.

Wetherspoons got involved with this beer and have bought around 400 casks to date, which has given it a good deal of exposure and helped to raise the profile of what we're all about at DBC. It also meant my dad who lives several hundred miles away was able to try it and he let me know that he approves!