It’s that time of year where the darker beers come out to play!! So we have headed back to Two Cocks Brewery to try their wonderful looking Stout… (Plus we bought it a while ago and the BBE date was fast approaching :/).

 

 

 

BREWER:  Two Cocks, Berkshire

STYLE: Stout

ABV: 4.5%

VESSEL: 500ml bottle 

MOB RATING: 88%

 

 

JYMI SAY’S…

It’s December 25^th, 3:33am, even though you’re 37, you have one eye open to maybe, just maybe catch a glimpse of the white bearded, rotund chap who cut’s about in a crushed red velvet suit on this night every year. You eventually fall back to sleep…

Morning breaks and the wonderful chaos of the day begins. You stroll down stairs to the noise of children tearing in to wrapping paper, the kettle boiling and some bacon sizzling.

A quick wash and freshen up and then the time has come… presents and a glass of something!

You crack open a bottle of Puritan and with that first sip everything that has gone before and is still to come in the day is summed up… Christmas.

This is an absolutely stunning Stout, no doubt. The nose is delicate and soothing as well as complex and intriguing.  There is a disconcerting fizz to it in the glass, but that doesn’t then transfer to sipping, odd but great! The taste is incredible. Complex with a little bite, but once swallowed is as smooth as Santa’s suit.

An utterly fantastic Winter’s drink that Jymi cannot recommend highly enough.

 

TASTE: 46/50

NOSE: 10/10

SIPABILITY: 7/10

SESSION: 8/10

PACKAGING: 10/10

NAME: 3/5

INFO: 3/5

J-TOTAL: 87/100

 

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

When the word stout is mentioned, there is one brand that immediately spring’s to mind.  So any company taking steps into this dominated market has to make sure those steps are going to leave huge imprints.  And let’s be honest, we’ve all boldly ordered unknown stouts in the past wanting for something to be different and to challenge our pre-conceived ideas.  All too often, we will then have been disappointed and left with that sinking reality that actually stout means only one thing…

But my goodness, that was until now.  Because now there’s Puritan.

I’m not going to waste my time describing the packaging – that’s been done before with this brewery – it makes a bold statement.  Underneath that packaging though, well that’s a different story.  This stout is intense.  It’s makes your taste buds come alive in a way that no other stout before it will have done.  The nose is great and then that first sip…that first sip is something you might believe you will never experience again.  And in some ways you’d be right because a first is always a first, never to happen again.  But the second is just as good.  And the third…

Puritan has such a distinctively nutty, marmitey taste that it could only be a stout.  Yet it’s a trend setter because it succeeds where so many before it have failed – it doesn’t try to imitate, it’s there to be imitated.  High praise indeed you might think; you’d be right.  And if you’ve only ever sampled one well-known stout before and want to try another then Puritan is for you.  If you’ve never tried a stout before and you’d like to venture into that world – Puritan is for you.  If you’ve never been interested in stout and think you never will be, well…Puritan is for you.

 

TASTE: 46/50

NOSE: 9/10

SIPABILITY: 10/10

SESSION: 8/10

PACKAGING: 10/10

NAME: 2/5

INFO: 4/5

S-TOTAL: 89/100

 

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 88%