Beer of the week: Frontaal Nebula

THIS week’s beer comes from a Madness newcomer: Brouwerij Frontaal was founded in 2015 by Roel Buckens, and it’s only taken a couple of years for this outfit to cross the channel.

Brewing modern beers that are evenly balanced, Frontaal make beers that are intended to show the impact of every ingredient upon a beer’s flavour.

Nebula is a robust smoked porter, weighing in at 6.6 per cent, brewed with a clean ale yeast so the smoke gets to take centre stage.

Nebula pours a deep, dark chocolate brown, reaching near-black at its deepest.

This porter pours very lively, with a towering head of toffee foam.

The aroma is rich with chocolate milk and milky coffee, but these get little room to breathe as a rolling smog of smoked malt pours out of the glass.

Beneath this Nebula has a remarkably light body, keeps it from becoming too cloying.

Initially punishingly smoky, Nebula opens out into dusty cocoa and tartly acidic coffee grounds.

A faint wisp of vanilla is backed up with crisp hazelnuts.

The smoke then clears, as a crisp, bitter finish cleans up the remaining sweetness alongside a sharp carbonic bite.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, York