If you were lucky enough to be in Catalonia, Spain, between 1961 and 2011, you might have made it to elBulli (Spanish for ‘the bull’). The restaurant, and its celebrity chef Ferran Adria, were world renown for innovative cuisine and molecular gastronomy.
Reservations for each season were usually gone the day they opened, and the restaurant eventually earned three Michelin stars. It closed in 2011 and reopened as a cooking laboratory and think tank in 2014.
That restaurant and the legacy it left is what inspired Central 28 brewmaster Geoff DeBisshop to create and release the incredibly limited El Bulli (Imperial Milk Stout, 9.7% ABV).
El Bulli from Central 28.
If that restaurant was half as good as this beer, then I think I missed out on quite the experience.
El Bulli is described as a ‘deconstructed tiramisu’ beer with big flavors of coffee, vanilla bean, and the lactose, of course.
Oh boy, this is delicious. It’s incredibly creamy, with an almost milkshake quality from a generous addition of lactose being helped along with a sweetness from the vanilla.
It’s also remarkably easy to drink for an imperial stout. There isn’t a trace of harshness in the beer; it goes down nice and easy.
The malt is biting but not brutal. A nice roasted malt gives notes of molasses, dark bread, and coffee. This is further enhanced by the coffee they put into the beer, because coffee.
That coffee was roasted by nearby Trilogy Coffee Roasters, a group that has the reputation of being very affable and also makes a great cup. Central 28 will be working more with them, I can guarantee it (I just can’t tell you what’s coming next).
Much like it’s namesake, El Bulli is limited edition. Even the bottles were numbered, which is a nice touch. My bottle was somewhere in the high 200’s out of a run of 600.
Get it now, if you can. And then you can give it all the Michelin stars you want.
Drink Florida Craft,
Dave
@floridabeerblog
floridabeerblog@gmail.com
floridacraftbeerday.com
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