Last of the 6 is the stout. Always best to leave the stout til last.

Stoodley Stout (black bottle top) headlines as rich and creamy.

Bottle notes say: “… the bottle is a traditional British Stout. The beer is rich and pitch black and contains chocolate malt with oats and wheat. It has a rich and creamy roasted flavour with aromas of orange, citrus and berry.”

Verdict: I was convinced I wouldn’t like this because most stouts with a chocolate malt have an excessive chocolate aftertaste that gets more unpleasant the more you drink it.

This one doesn’t. In fact this stout is lovely. The chocolate aftertaste is very subtle indeed. I can’t pick up the citrus and berry flavours but that doesn’t matter. I drank this very quickly indeed. It didn’t need de-gassing. It was just spot on.

This is a great stout – one of the best bottles of stout I’ve had for a long time. Very drinkable. Forget Guinness – drink this.