Gawd, it has been a while.

But it all rounds out in an oddly-nice way as I sit here and write about an absurdly, magnificently, madly chocolatey beer while eating some of the very-last (at last!) of my ultra-massive birthday cake — it seemed to be made of chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and some other kinds of chocolate. This whole week (since my actual birthday, last Tuesday; it’s late on September 4 as I write this) has put that whole “you can’t have your cake and eat it” cliché in a bin and thoroughly given it a pounding with cricket bats. It turns out that if some lovely-lovely people buy you a sufficiently massive cake, you can have it all week and eat it all week, too.

‘Craftsman’ had its re-launch at work way back in June — the value of t isn’t quite in the triple-digits, at least — shortly after it scooped the Champion Stout trophy at the Australian International Beer Awards. George and I were just recording a podcast episode today in which we discussed the various oddnesses of beer awards in general, so it’s additionally-fitting that I finally get around to this one, now. Whatever their issues — and let’s, for a moment, leave aside a) the peculiar way in which beer-judging works and b) the traditional Miniturised Industrial-looking Piece of Thing theme that all the trophies seem to go for — it remains a lovely moment when a deserving beer picks up an award and gives you yet another opportunity to shake the hand of the people from the brewery and congratulate them on the goodness of what they do.

I’d had a lovely afternoon, and had forgotten entirely that this was making its return that night. But on seeing the tap badge, quickly grabbing a tasting glass, and having just the merest sniff of it, I was instantly transported into a state of giddy, child-like glee. The nose of it is just perfect chocolate; like birthday cake, or a craving-ending snack, or an easter egg you found under the bed just when you were regretting having eaten them all already. The ultra-choc character comes from combining an oatmeal stout base with additional doses of cocoa nibs and vanilla. The latter was eased-off a little this year, and I think that was definitely the right move; last year’s edition had the same grin-inducing chocolatey loveliness, but got perhaps a little sticky by the time you’d made it most of the way through your pint. Here, everything’s in marvellous balance. That may be an odd-looking trophy, but it’s one damn well-earned.

(And in one final piece of nice, spooky timing, I closed my Diary entry with a mention of “The Barry White Joke”, a phrase that harks all the way back to Emerson’s sadly-retired Oatmeal Stout, and which I last noted here while rambling about Emerson’s ‘Grace Jones’ Porter — a ‘Brewers’ Reserve’ beer which has, itself, just been re-released. I had some tonight at Hop Garden, and it was tasting great.)

Verbatim: Renaissance ‘Craftsman’ 2011 1/6/11 @ MH. Launch of the new edition, which did very well over at the AIBA. Always nice to have Brian in the house, too. Me and Haitch were both reduced to wordless joy with our tasters — me probably helped along by still being on a bit of a high from a lovely afternoon. It’s just gorgeous. The vanilla is toned-back from last year, making it worryingly drinkable — I liked the 2010, but it did get a bit sticky. It’s liquid chocolate, dry and cocoa-y and dark. A worthy new target referent for my Barry White joke.