Mills and Hills imperial stout (9.5%) by Fyne Ales and Brouwerij de Molen

Normally, these beer columns start with a wee preamble about the brewery, maybe a mention of the owners, how they started last year or last century, how they built up their business from a bartered homebrew kit and turned it into an internationally acclaimed brewery, winning plaudits from business bodies and toasts from beer lovers. Not today.

Today's Beer of the Week has been too much of a long time coming*.

Mills and Hills is a mighty Imperial Stout from Fyne Ales brewed in collaboration with Brouwerij de Molen in the Netherlands. It's a black beast of a beer. Smooth and atmospheric, it's got attitude, a rich sweetness and a bitter bite. Dark and powerful, it's sultry rather than brooding.

Crack open a bottle and the aroma is prunes, spiced fruitcake and chocolate and roasted malts. It's exotic, delicious and embracing.

But take a drink and ... wow.

You get an intense mouth rush, sweetness and bitterness all wrapped up in rich, decadent booziness. The hops - Challenger, Sorachi Ace and Calypso to name just three in this brew - are pungent and vivid, carried along with a heady base of chocolate and heavily roasted malt. It's like fruitcake soaked in bourbon with a whole load of delicious hops thrown in.

And then, fairly quickly, this smooth but viscous stout eases into a satisfyingly dry finish, with a liquorice and bitter burnt toffee flavour that wraps itself round your mouth and holds on tight. Well worth the wait, and well worth accompanying with a good dram.


*Why a long time coming?

Well, so here's the preamble. In February last year, Fyne Ales announced a £2m expansion of their brewery, doubling - at first - their output to about 54,000 pints a week. After what seemed an age, Mills and Hills is the first bottled beer to come off the new kit and a lot of Fyne fans have been looking forward to seeing how far Fyne would push their new toy. Pretty darn far.

Nor have Fyne Ales solely focused on just the one beer. Since firing up the new kit late last year they've released five other special beers on keg and cask, and there's promise of more exciting beers to come ...