UnBarred x Siren Craft Brew: Imperial Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout

Siren Craft Brew came to visit the sunny shores of Brighton to produce a unique beer together for your enjoyment.

Siren Craft Brew was born in 2013 with a simple idea in mind: to introduce exciting, full-flavoured and forward-thinking beers to as many people as possible.

They pride themselves on sourcing the best ingredients, regardless of cost, and refusing to let anything out of the door that doesn't meet their standards. We pride ourselves on doing the same and thus, the synergy to put our heads together for a collaboration seemed an ideal fit.

It’s been an amazing experience to work so closely with Siren’s head brewer Sean and their events manager Matt. We’ve all shared so many different processes and techniques that you cannot find online and come from our individual drive, passion and experiences in brewing to push the boundaries. 

“The amount of passion that Jordan and the UnBarred team have for beer was apparent from the first sip, when we first had a beer with them. From that point, we knew we had to collaborate on a beer, and we knew we had to go big! Choosing what beer to brew together was actually quite easy. We knew it needed to be a stout, something well balanced and packed full of mole inspired flavours. We wanted it to be as authentic to mole as possible, but with a twist that spoke volumes about both UnBarred and Siren. Lots of research went into achieve that, lots of sharing of knowledge and process so we could achieve the ultimate mole pastry, and I couldn't be happier with the end result!” Matt Lincoln, Siren Craft Brew

After discussing many different styles and trying a range of beers between us we settled on making a big indulgent stout. Mole was our starting concept to build on. Sean connected us with Willie Cacao (https://www.williescacao.com) who kindly sent over some Mexican mole to help us really understand the flavours that are authentic to Mexico.

“It’s an honour to do a collaboration with Siren Craft Brew for me. I remember queuing out the door at Craft Beer Co Brighton when they released their first Caribbean Chocolate Cake. They inspired me to bring different flavours and concepts into beer. Now I love to challenge what a beer is.” Jordan Mower, Head Brewer & Founder

This is the most adjuncts we have ever put into the beer, the final tasting notes took us a whole day. Balancing different chillies, heat, almond, vanilla, chocolate, coca nibs, cinnamon by creating tinctures (steeping of ingredients) to adjust and test the flavours in the beer.

This has felt like a true collaboration from start to finish and the beginning of a genuine relationship we’ve all learnt so much from this process and we are very proud of the outcome that has been achieved.

To really honour this collaboration, we wanted to have a special design that captures the creativity and inspiration of the project. We turned to the extraordinary talent that is Will Barbour-Brown. With over 10 year’s worth of experience as a professional tattoo artist and illustrator, Will has managed to develop an unmistakable style composed of bold line work and a distinct colour palette.

“For the can design, as soon as I heard the mention of “chillies” my mind instantly went to Mexico, day of the dead, Santa Muerté etc I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone or just because I’m a tattooist. Sugar skulls and Lady Death have always been a popular choice amongst clients. These themes look great as tattoos but without the restrictions that come with tattooing, I could really let loose on this design.” Will Barbour-Brown - @anshin_anshin_tattoo

Imperial Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout arrives Wednesday 8th September.