Cold Stone Cream Austen Chocolate Orange from Top Rope Brewery Beer Review

To give this beer it's full name it's Cold Stone Cream Austen Chocolate Orange Ice cream Pale Ale from Top Rope Brewery, but that's a hell of a mouthful isn't it. I've never tried the original but I gather the chocolate orange bit of the beer is an add on and there's a lemon cheesecake version too which sounds tasty. I guess if the original was so good they're making different versions I should be in for a treat here. Top Rope are a new Liverpool based brewery who started making beer in 2015 and use wrestling puns for their beers. They've also done some work with country singer Frank Turner who is one of my favourite musicians so they've got a bit going for them. 

I had this beer on tap but you can buy it in quite nice 440ml cans covered in skulls, so that's cool. Cold Stone Steve Austen pours a lovely cloudy pale yellow with a thick white head and contains 4.6% alcohol which makes it good for a session. The brewers describe the beer as having 'added a citrusy punch of orange backed up by a subtle hint of chocolate. The 4.6% vanilla flavoured ice cream pale base still has all the mouth feel and creaminess you’d expect to find and is fully vegan friendly.' So it really does sound nice, and I'm not usually a light beer drinker.

The beers aroma is full of fruit, vanilla and lactose, it's a really nice smell so exactly how it's vegan friendly I honestly don't know. Similarly the texture is wonderfully thick and smooth like a milkshake, but it's vegan friendly so it can't contain lactose, I don't know how Top Rope have made this so creamy, but whatever they've done it works. You'll be pleased to know that not only does this beer look good, smell good and feel good it also tastes great, honestly Top Rope are on to a winner here.

The taste really is unique with oodles of creamy vanilla goodness mixed with some lovely fruit flavours and a little bit of chocolate thrown in just to keep those of us with a sweet tooth happy. It's a little like drinking a really nice fruity White Russian cocktail only much better. It's been a while since I've been really surprised by a beer but this one really is exceptional. It's also been a while since I gave out a 10 out of 10 but Cold Stone Cream Austen Chocolate Orange from Top Rope brewery is fully deserving of the score. I think this is now my favourite light beer.