Beer O’Clock: King Cobra

Your beer and snakes this week come from Neil at Real Beer.

Not many things in this world scare me. Spiders do. And Scorpions. (And socialism.) However, perhaps my greatest fear would be snakes.

Snakes on a Plane may well be a very funny film with a soon-to-classic line that only Samuel L Jackson could pull off and still be cool, but I get totally creeped out just by the poster. So it is with some surprise that I've recently found myself become quite infatuated by a snake – of sorts.

King Cobra is billed as a “double fermented, superior strong lager beer.” It is rare for a lager to be double fermented and bottle conditioned (live yeast in the bottle) but this is no ordinary beer. (Can you hear Samuel saying that?)

While Cobra is a famous Indian beer brand making a pretty ordinary lager, this is a very different beast. Brewed in Belgium and distributed from England, this is a premium brew with a very European feel, delivered to you the drinker in a distinctive, dark, 750ml bottle with a champagne cork on top and a picture of a pair of gold elephants on the front.

Who could ask for anything more?

King Cobra pours a soft, slightly cloudy gold with a lovely, lively, finely bubbled head. It’s a spritzy drop with the bubbles bouncing happily off the tongue. Relatively soft flavored, it has subtle hints of apple and orange with a distinctive twang from the yeast. It can be poured clear or slightly cloudy, but it ends with a pleasant soft bitter finish.

King Cobra is not a Belgian strong ale or an English strong lager – it lacks both the complexity for the former and the crassness to be the latter. This beer is something quite different – but it is highly recommended. Try it instead of champagne at your next Christmas function.

LINKS: Brewery – www.cobrabeer.com

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