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We’ve brewed some pretty ridiculous beers over the years at Shiny Brewery, but Melt might genuinely be the craziest thing we’ve ever made.
Meet Melt our brand new 8% Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Cream Stout.
Putting ice cream in beer seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea at the time.
We wanted to make something ridiculously thick, creamy, chocolatey and packed with vanilla. Not just a stout that tastes a bit like ice cream, we wanted the texture to be a massive part of it too.
Something that pours thick, drinks thick and sits somewhere between a big stout and a proper dessert.
The result is Melt.
And somehow, despite everything going on inside this can, it’s completely VEGAN too. 🌱
SERIOUSLY, IT’S THICK
We should probably make this clear.
Melt is THICK.
This isn’t just us using the word “creamy” because it sounds nice on a beer description. We deliberately set out to make one of the thickest beers we’ve ever produced.
Pour it into a glass and you’ll immediately see what we mean.
It’s rich, dense and ridiculously smooth, with loads of chocolate and vanilla running through that huge body. At 8% ABV, it’s much closer to a liquid dessert than your everyday pint.
It’s excessive.
That’s sort of the point.
MAKING MELT WASN’T EXACTLY STRAIGHTFORWARD
It turns out making a beer this ridiculous creates a few problems.
Who knew?
We’re going to keep some of what happened behind the scenes to ourselves, but we can tell you that Melt required us to do things we’ve never done before at Shiny.
Our usual way of doing things wasn’t going to cut it.
Equipment had to be modified. There was plenty of experimenting and problem solving. There were some very late shifts at the brewery getting it through the process and into cans.
When you’re dealing with a beer this thick, things don’t always behave quite how you’d like them to.
Exactly what we changed and how we managed it?
That bit’s staying in the brewery.
But after a lot of work, we got it there.
And the end result was absolutely worth it.
CHOCOLATE. VANILLA. ICE CREAM. BEER.
Chocolate is front and centre, backed up by smooth vanilla and that enormous creamy body.
We wanted every part of Melt to lean into the dessert side of things. It’s rich, sweet, indulgent and completely over the top.
Basically, it’s about as close to pudding as we can reasonably get away with calling beer.
This isn’t something we’ve made before.
In fact, we’ve never made anything quite like it.
AND YES, IT’S VEGAN
This is probably the other slightly ridiculous part.
Despite being a Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Cream Stout, Melt is completely vegan-friendly. 🌱
Getting the huge body, creamy character and dessert-like experience we wanted while keeping the beer fully vegan was all part of the challenge.
How did we do it?
We’re keeping quiet on that one too.
All you really need to know is that it’s 8%, incredibly thick, loaded with chocolate and vanilla, and completely vegan.
WHAT DOES EVERYONE ELSE THINK?
After the amount of work that went into Melt, we’ve been loving seeing the reaction to it on Untappd.
The early ratings have been brilliant, especially for something so different from anything we’ve brewed before.
If you’ve already managed to get your hands on a can, we’d love to know what you make of it.
BEFORE YOU OPEN IT…
There’s one very important thing you need to know.
Melt isn’t a normal stout, so don’t treat it like one.
SHAKE FOR 30 SECONDS.
Then…
LEAVE TO REST FOR 5 MINUTES.
Then crack it open, pour and enjoy.
Yes, we’re telling you to shake an 8% stout.
Trust us.
OUR CRAZIEST BEER YET?
Without a doubt, it’s up there.
Melt pushed us into completely new territory. It required changes in the brewery, plenty of experimenting, seriously late shifts and a lot more work than we’d probably like to admit.
But that’s exactly why we wanted to make it.
We didn’t want to make another chocolate stout.
We wanted to see how far we could push one.
How thick could we make it? How much could we lean into that chocolate and vanilla ice cream character? Could we make the whole thing vegan? And, most importantly, could we actually get the bloody stuff through the brewery?
Somehow, the answer was yes.
The result is Melt.
8% Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Cream Stout.
Completely vegan.
Ridiculously thick.
Our craziest beer yet.
And exactly how we made it?
We’re keeping that bit a secret.
