Samuel Smith - Imperial Stout and Tort

It's not necessarily that I've never been a fan of stout, it's just I've always had it in the wrong context. Like my first Guinness when I was in high school around the time I wore stone wash jeans and therefore clearly knew jack about anything. Or tried drinking it in that Solo "slam it down fast" manner when I was dying from dehydration. So we've never really been introduced under the best circumstances, and it's no wonder I haven't really been interested until now.

Christmas last year. Being an orphan in a new city, I made myself a massive ham and turkey lunch with all the frills since I was missing out on being lazy, being able to go to the house of a family member and have all the food put in front of me then pass out on the couch. Part of this meal revolved around some pre-packaged plum pudding. The only real way I could possibly make this taste like something a human could actually consume was a) smother it in custard and brandy or, b) find a matching beer.

So I went with Young's Double Chocolate Stout (UK). I'd been recommended this by a friend on Facebook (bless it) and it's commonly known that chocolate stout's are perfect as dessert beers. Now after I'd stuffed my stomach with good quality meat and salad, I turned my attention to the stout/pudding combination and it was certainly, to put it gently, fucking brilliant. HOWEVER - since this was my first stout matching experience (and that I'd drank a six pack of Hawthorn's Pale Ale (VIC) prior to dessert), I probably jumped the gun too soon on the praise. Since then, I've found something that far exceeds the pleasure of the Christmas decadence.

Back again to the Local Taphouse in St Kilda - After sampling their beer and matching cheese tasting platter, I couldn't resist looking at their dessert menu. The thing that caught my eye was the Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout (UK) Tort with cream. If you check out the photo above, the dessert is in the middle, with the bottle of the stout to the right. The girl behind the bar ran me through some options that could be complimentary, contrasting or cutting, one such option involved matching the dessert with a Kriek and therefore getting a Cherry Ripe effect, but I couldn't resist the actual perfect complimentary match, and went with the stout instead.

All you have to do here really is imagine the following - putting a piece of rich, dense chocolate tort covered in light-textured but full-flavoured cream in your mouth, then sipping on a rich stout, the very same stout that was infused with the tort in the first place, swishing it all around and swallowing it down, leaving that warm feeling in your belly you know can only come from the finer things. Now I don't know for what crazy message it was that followed, but after experiencing sunny warm weather all morning, the clouds suddenly rolled out and burst open with hail. This forced us out of the beergarden and back into the pub for another hour or so, being unable to leave because of the sheer power of the thunderstorm. I think that was someone/thing trying to keep us there and truly indulge in the experience.