Revisiting Tiny Rebel, Stay Puft Marshmallow Porter

I’d had this beer a couple of times before but a while ago now and in bottles. I’d liked it a lot of the first time, and had been slightly underwhelmed the second time. Then I saw it cropping up in cans, and heard they’d tweaked the recipe. Time to taste it again.

[pullquote cite=”Tiny Rebel” type=”right”]”This marshmallow porter has the classic roasty qualities of a proper dark ale, whilst the marshmallow gives it a smooth sweetness, both combining for a delightful, S’mores-like ale. A sweet treat for the cold winter nights.”[/pullquote]

As before this poured a very dark brown, seeming black in the glass, with a thickish head of tan foam. But was it always this cratered? I couldn’t remember. On the nose I got a familiar smoky sweet aroma, with marshmallow and earthy, faintly roasted notes. The marshmallow was less prominent than I remembered from last time around. Its flavour was soft, with burnt marshmallow floating over roast malt, coffee, liquorice, dates and vanilla. With a moderately full and yet light body, soft carbonation preceded the gently drying finish, where a slight coffee bitterness lingered just edging the balance over the malts.

I found it very pleasant with a ghost of burnt marshmallow allowing some more complex flavours to come through.

Food pairings might be a little tricky here… I’d tend to think dessert first here but you’d best stay away from anything too sweet – this beer has enough sweetness of its own already. Perhaps a semisweet chocolate based pud like a soufflé or a cheesecake with a chocolate base. Have said that, I do wonder whether tiramisu would work. Perhaps the sweetness of the dessert would pull out the bitter coffee notes from the beer a bit more to balance out the pairing overall, while the carbonation would work well to refresh your palate after all that heavy creaminess.

If you’ve had this beer I’d love to hear what you thought of it, and if you’ve tried with paired with food let me know about that too – what worked, what didn’t, what you’d like to try. Let me know!