The Kings Arms, in Bethnal Green, London, is to host a first tasting of a new collaboration brew from Pressure Drop and Lost and Grounded — a Belgian chocolate stout named How We Roll.
The event, on Friday, February 23, will also feature Bosko IPA and Street Porter, from Pressure Drop, and No Rest for Dancers and Running with Sceptres from Lost and Grounded.
Pressure Drop co-founder, Ben Freeman, said of How We Roll: “It’s a moderate strength, smooth stout base, full of brown, chocolate and imported Belgian Special B malt, and we added some authentic dark candy syrup to the kettle for an extra Belgian vibe.
“It fermented out with our house Belgian yeast strain, but we reigned in the temperature to keep the yeast esters a little more subdued than usual. We still get all the lovely spice and phenols from the yeast, but it allows the roasted malts to join the party.
“For one final twist, we hooked up with our friend Phil Landers, of Land Chocolate, an artisan small batch chocolate maker in Bethnal Green. For a while we had been talking to him about using some of the shells from the cocoa bean, which are otherwise discarded as part of the chocolate production process. This seemed like a great opportunity.
“They retain an awesome rich chocolate flavour and, after a few tasting trials, we went for a load of Nicaraguan and Honduran shells, fresh from roasting, in the conditioning tank to provide extra chocolate flavour to the finished beer.”
