Today’s review is a collaborative brew between one of my favourite breweries at the moment, Yeastie Boys, and the primarily lager focused Utopian Brewing who are based in Devon! Interestingly, it is Utopian who brew Yeastie Boys’ beers for them here in the UK as they are, of course, a New Zealand based brewery. Instead of a lager, they’ve collaborated on an Extra Special Bitter, a guilty pleasure style for me and one you don’t see often from craft brewers. ‘Other World’ comes in at 5.4% ABV.

The beer pours a clear caramel or marmalade colour. Lot’s of carbonation bubbles rising up to the head in this beer. The nose has a malty caramel sweetness to it with a hints of chocolate too. The body of the brew continues that theme with a roasted dark chocolate bitterness to the flavour. There are also touches of dried fruits to it as well. Smooth drinking from start to finish too.

A quick note on the can art: The art work on Yeastie Boys’ beer is simply gorgeous in my mind and this is no different. Appears simple but very detailed and matches the name of the beer very well.

I love seeing craft brewers go for more traditional styles of beer and I love it even more when it pays off. ‘Other World’ is a great little bitter with a very solid depth of flavour. It’s all about the malt character here and they shine through fantastically. Rich and bitter but with a very good balance to the overall beer. Utopian seem to do a very good job at brewing on behalf of Yeastie Boys so I would quite like to see what they do with their lagers, particularly some of the more specialist lager styles. I also appreciate that the side of their cans explicitly state the hop and malt varieties used in the beers.

Score: 8.5/10

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Additional Information:

• Hops: First Gold, Bramling Cross
• Malt: Marris Otter Pale, Crystal, Amber, Chocolate
• IBU: Not Available
• ABV: 5.4%
• Gluten Free: No
• Vegan: Yes!