Brewery: Red Rat Craft Brewery
Location: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
ABV: 6.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: Sainsbury’s

I think of all the beers I picked up in the Sainsbury’s real ale promotion recently, this was the one I was looking forward to the most, so I’m really glad to be able to report that it didn’t disappoint – not in the slightest.

Crazy Dig Stout pours a proper, thick black colour – without even a hint of reddishness to mar its inky perfection (“dark as the inside of a cat,” as I think Terry Pratchett once wrote) and with very little head. The settling beer gives off a faint whiff of treacle and the first sip (or, I have to confess, gulp) releases an explosion of flavour, zest and energy which lasts the entire bottle.

I jotted down every flavour that came to mind whilst I was savouring this rather excellent brew and, whilst I’m sure I probably missed a few, I did notice: treacle (definitely), fruit (grapefruit and sour cherries) coffee and chicory, to name the predominant ones. An initial sweetness gave way to a lingering dryness as the drink went on as well, which saved it from being overly-sugary.

All in all: rather superb. Maybe not the wisest choice of session beer, but definitely one to try.

I rushed (nay, sprinted!) back to Sainsbury’s not long after I’d sampled Crazy Dog but their stocks had (unsurprisingly, perhaps) all disappeared. The good news is that Red Rat‘s (slightly eclectic) website offers a mail order page with a 12 bottle mixed case option for a quite reasonable £22 (especially if that includes postage – the site doesn’t specify) so I might be tempted by one of each of the rest of their range with the balance made up in Crazy Dog. Yes… very, very tempted indeed…