Stone Rich
Goose Island Beer Co.

Goose Island Brewhouse "Stone Rich"

From their website: "German-style Altbier, 4.8% Inspired by our brewer Tim’s trip to Germany! Malty enough to keep you interested but refreshing enough to crush by the liter. A blend of Continental lager, Munich, and roasted malts provide rich malty backbone, paired with the light body and low ABV that makes this beer utterly quaffable. Perfect to help you get through social isolation and reintroducing you to friends once the world gets back on track. Prost to being healthy and safe."

Notes via stream of consciousness: It's poured a very dark brown that reveals ruby highlights. It's clear, and the head is a short cap of off-white. Unfortunately the head has already dropped, and all I'm left with is a large island of thin foam in the center surrounded by a thin ring around the glass. Disappointing. In the nose it's caramelish, toasty, and chocolate-fudge like. I like it! On to the flavor... ... it's far more chocolatey than I thought it would be. It's like a brown ale or porter. I haven't had an altbier like this, although styles can vary widely in Germany. It reminds me very much of a landbier that I sampled in Berlin, but I can't remember the name or where it was from. Anyway, there's a hint of roastiness to it, and a pleasant spiciness that I'm assuming is coming from hops. It's bready, and rich in a way, yet also somehow light. In that sense it reminds me of an English dark mild. It's also similar in that it's light-medium in body and mildly carbonated. Except that the roastiness seems as if it would build upon your palate, I could easily see whiling away the day in a nice pub with this, or enjoying it repeatedly during an evening session with the lads. Back to the beer itself, it's moderately bitter, and yet dry without a lot needed to balance the malt that's there. Having said that, it does lean slightly towards the sweeter side of things, but remains mostly centered and balanced due at least in part to the ashy roastiness. So, what to say that I haven't already said? I think the roastiness is slightly fuller than it needs to be, but overall it's a really great quaff. I wasn't expecting much from this but it's actually turned out to be one of my favorites from the Philly brewhouse.