這位於英格蘭西南部Somerset郡的迷你酒廠名稱真的不尋常，叫 Kubla，和元世祖忽必烈音譯的Kublai僅一字之差；查一查wiki，這Kubla和18-19世紀英國文人Samuel Taylor Coleridge在吸鴉片過後、乎乎渺渺之際、為描寫忽必烈避暑的元上都文獻所啟發而做的詩篇 “Kubla Khan” 又正好一樣… 更別提，Coleridge正是在臨郡Devon出生長大的呢！真好玩，已寫email去問個究竟囉~~

Kubla, Paradise: Stout, 4.8%abv. (English Stout)

Purchased at the “Independent Spirit of Bath”, in Bath, during my recent visit to the lovely city; bottle-conditioned in a 500ml tall brown bottle, BB 05/03/2014, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

3.5/5 Appearance: leaving a rather thick layer of yeast sediment “mud” in the bottle, it pours a pitch black colour with faint caramel hues on the bottom of the glass, coming with very restrained carbonation and a quickly retreating beige rimmed head.

3/5 Smell: lightly sour-ish apply and funky upfront(?! likely due to infection?)… to my surprise; behind that comes forth light bodied bitter chocolates and mildly stinky roastiness; a good swirl wakes up the sweeter edge of pale malts, a tad caramel, light herbs and deep-running savoury notes.

3.5/5 Taste: very quiet on the carbonation, the roasty-malty foretaste is interestingly savoury-sweet reminiscent of seaweed (actually), mixed with a strange notion of old dried chillies, mashed kidney beans, lightly acidic black-prune-ish fruitiness, subdued herbal bitterness, and “casual” (i.e. not prevalent) undertones of dark chocolates, plus, well, lightly funky yeastiness at the remote corner of the palate. The finish goes very smooth, with a light earthy & citric touch of (old-school) English hops.

3/5 Mouthfeel & 3.5/5 Overall: the carbonation seems to be way too attenuated, suggesting that the yeast sediments haven’t worked enough to lend a refreshing texture to the beer; that said, this medium-bodied traditional stout has the potential of being a remarkable beer, for the flavour profile strikes me as quite… “sound” – does that make sense? Anyway, I’m quite happy that I picked up this bottle in Bath; this is a new microbrewery and it is absolutely allowed to look for a firmer orientation for their products… yep. I shall also look forward to trying the beer’s cask-conditioned version, if it is ever to be produced (given enough people’s encouragement)~~

--Yau (22/05/2013)