You want a real challenge? Try and find a bottle of Southwark Old Stout near your place. And that’s a challenge that stands, regardless of where you live (except perhaps in South Australia, where it’s made, because I imagine it’s pretty easy to find there).
But every other state’s stout lovers might have a hard time finding a bottle because it has very odd distribution. So odd that a member of the Illawarra Brewers Union (check out that group’s clever acronym) – a homebrew club I’m a part of – posted on their Facebook page that this beer was being stocked at a local bottle shop.

That would be okay for some limited edition craft beer but not for something that’s essentially a mainstream beer. Well, sort of a mainstream beer. See, I’m not too sure there are any mainstream beers that clock in at 7.4 per cent alcohol. Mainstream beers tend to think they’re doing something whacky and zany if they get past six per cent.

And yet here is an unassuming stout climbing past seven per cent. In the glass it’s very dark with a coffee-coloured head. The flavours are of coffee, dark chocolate and even liquorice and the bee leaves your palate with some underlying bitterness.

Yes, while it might be hard to find, Southwark Old Stout is definitely worth hunting down.