Across The Nation Midnight Ember
Central City Brewers + Distillers

355 mL can, the penultimate of twelve beers in this year's Across the Nation Collaboration mixed pack. Dated Mar 21 2018 and served slightly chilled. I love me some smoked beer, so let's hope I saved the best for last, eh?

Pours a deep mahogany brown - dark, but not quite opaque, as maroon-red highlights become perceptible when held to the light. Roughly one centimetre of bubbly, frothy, beige-coloured head falls apart within 90 seconds, leaving little behind, save for a sickly-thin collar and a marigold flower pattern of wisps upon an otherwise barren surface. It smells primarily of roasted malts, with smoked malt also figuring in rather conspicuously... beyond that, I'm getting hints of cocoa, licorice, date and molasses, as well as some herbal, floral hop elements.

The flavours are not bad, though I preferred the aroma. Roasted, charred malts come through clearly, with hints of berry and date buried underneath, only occasionally drawing attention to themselves. The smoked malts are a relatively inconsistent presence, being hard to discern on the front end but coming to be more obvious towards the finish, which also includes some earthy hops and baker's chocolate bitterness that integrates nicely with the roasted malt backbone. Light in body, with middling carbonation levels that briskly prickle the palate - not the ideal texture for a stout, but if I have to choose between thin and crisp vs. thin and flat, I'll lean towards the former.

Final Grade: 3.42, a B-. NWT's Midnight Ember is a passable smoked stout. My main gripes are that the mouthfeel is too thin, and the flavour profile isn't much deeper - the smokiness comes through well enough, but the base stout just comes off as dull and/or plain. In all fairness, this can is 8 months old, so it's entirely possible that the beer has simply deteriorated over that time span. I can't say for sure, but it's interesting enough that I'd consider giving it another shot (if I were to somehow gain access to a follow-up batch).

Can: Poured a clear black color ale with a nice brown foamy had with OK retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of light roasted malt with some black chocolate notes. Taste is a mix of black chocolate notes with roasted malt with some hints of smoke. Body is light with good carbonation. OKish but lacks flavours and body is too thin for style.

 

 

Coal black with a strong head. Malt and some spicy hops on nose. Mild malt with very slight smokiness. More smooth than crisp. A little uneven.

 

Rather a weak effort. Hints at what belongs in a stout, but really u derstated for something that's also alleged to be smoked. Thin bodied, mildly bitter up front, finishes somehow sour. Not stouty, not smokey, just a pretender.

Collaboration NWT Brewing, canned: Almost opaque, dark brown/black color, with a deep veiled copper hue. Soft creamy 1 finger light brown head, lasting around 5 minutes, with average legs and swirl reaction. Flavors of toffee, berries, smoke, salmon, wood, coffee, dark grains, brown sugar, light chocolate, and herbal hops. Slick and deep oily, almost smooth, full body with moderate prickly and crispy carbonation. Strong strength finish, mostly roasted and leafy a bit, not much fruits. Bitter tongue coat, moderately sugary. Decent balance, also pretty warming for the ABV while still filling. Quite spicy with a proper Rauchbier effect, interestingly ends with a soft cheese sensation of yeast. Cross stout and Red ale, and quite a robust one. Nice complexity and good freshness. Overall very good quality craft.

Just a taste. Not my thing.

L - 2-finger hazelnut head atop a dark brown body.

S - sweet toffee, caramel, chocolate, roast.

T - follows the nose. A lot of pleasant smokiness. Low bitterness, low sweetness, low booziness.

F - medium-light body with moderate carb.

O - the body is lacking, but some good flavors here.

 

Pours a dark ruby body similar to Guinness, with a slight amount of head. The nose is filled with Smokey campfire notes, as well as the deeper charred notes of coffee and chocolate. The palate has a great balance of heavy cocoa and coffee flavours and smokiness. So smooth and velvety. Great beer.

 

 

355ml can, part of the 2018 Across the Nation collaboration pack with 12 different Canadian breweries, one from each province and territory. This one involves the Northwest Territories' NWT Brewing, and is a Smoked Stout.

This beer pours a clear (I think), very dark brown colour, with prominent amber highlights, and three fingers of puffy, rocky and somewhat silky beige head, which leaves some splendid spider-web pattern lace around the glass as it slowly seeps away.

It smells of roasted and meaty caramel malt, a further wet campfire ashiness, some minor muddled fruity notes, ethereal cafe-au-lait, faint medium cocoa powder, and very, very tame earthy, musty, and floral noble hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, some porcine-tinged free-range char, bittersweet chocolate wafers, a still difficult to parse fruitiness, and more understated leafy, earthy, and musky floral green hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its palate-satiating frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and generally smooth, once yer palate gets used to the smokey essences, that is, hoss. It finishes off-dry, the roasted malt pretty much entertaining the crowd at the lingering court.

Overall - this is a well-made, and well-named version of the style, and a pleasure to drink, even if it's still damned-near 30 degrees (C) outside. Or maybe because of it - Midnight Ember would have gone smashingly well with some s'mores, the stuff that I keep telling my pre-schooler that we only ever have in autumn. Gotta work on that.

If you’re a fan of smoked things, methinks you’ll enjoy this beer. It’s part of this year’s cross Canada collaboration, brewed in partnership with NWT Brewing. It’s dark, with a frothy head that hangs around for the party. The nose and taste are where this beer shines - a lovely balance of smoke, roasted malt, and no sweetness whatsoever. Overall, a very enjoyable beer for me, though I know it might not be for everyone.