Raspberry Stout
Town Hall Brewery

 

10 oz pour on tap into a snifter.

A- Pitch black one finger tan head, with a slight pink haze in the head, opaque, nice lacing.
S- Slight raspberry aroma, dark malts, slight coffee presence, the aroma is very mellow slight roasted aroma.
T- Wow the raspberry flavor is very present in this beer, it’s really surprising and delicious, slight roasted after taste, coffee, the raspberries take over, love it.
M- Medium mouth feel, tart smooth drinking, with a crisp finish.
O- I m really surprised by this beer, it’s really easy drinking and refreshing, the raspberry flavor infused in a stout works really well here.

Town Hall did a very good job with this Raspberry stout. It had just enough body to make it palletable and the additional of raspberry was excellent. This beer was dark...opaque with nice tan head that laced. The smell was bolstered by raspberry and included roast and espresso. The taste was really good for this style of beer...nice and balanced. For those that enjoy chocolate and dark berries together this is certainly a beer for you. Great raspberry flavor balanced with the roast, cocoa, and enough hops to clean the pallet without being to bitter. The mouthfeel was good....more body would be nice....the ABV was perfect and this is definitely a good stout.

On tap at Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery. This beer arrives a black color with a half inch tannish-red head. The aroma is of raspberries with chocolate and roasted malt. The taste is similar to the aroma with high residual sweetness. This beer tastes like chocolate covered raspberries. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with a silky texture, and appropriately low carbonation. Overall, this is one very fine beer that I hope to have the opportunity to drink again.

On tap at the brewpub, served in a snifter

The pour is a very dark brown and by the time it came to our table there wasn't really any head; just a small layer of bubbles on the top. The smell was overwhelmingly of tart raspberries and as it warmed up just a little bit of coffee tones. The taste was just an explosion of this tart raspberry fruit. It was sweet and tart very similar to drinking straight raspberry juice. There wasn't much stout character until it warmed a little bit where some coffee and roasted came out but even then it was very muted. This is much more a fruit beer than a stout with fruit. Mouthfeel was decent but the drinkability was hampered by the tart sweetness.

The description of the menu states that this is the H2O Oatmeal stout aged on raspberries. both of the beers state an ABV of 6% therefore I'm assuming that the beer was pasteurized before aging on the fruit otherwise it would be a higher ABV and not as sweet. I think that if it was let to referment the fruit the marriage of fruit and stout would have been much better but as it stands it is just a decent fruit beer.

I labeled this as a fruit beer because the fruit completely overwhelmed everything else. This beer is different than their Raspberry Milk Stout. This brew is their Black H2O Oatmeal Stout with fresh raspberries added to fermentation. Pours a dark brown almost black color, and some ruby highlights can be seen at the edges. Small head no lacing in the goblet. Huge raspberry aroma, backed by only a mild chocolaty aroma with a touch of roastiness. This is pretty much all raspberry. Same as with the taste. It was served rather cold, and all I could taste was tart raspberries up front. As it warmed, the fruit became more sweet and some of the base stout started to peek it's way through. I haven't this strong of a raspberry flavor since NG's Raspberry Tart. Medium body, tart finish. Not bad, would like to have seen the raspberry accentuate the stout rather than the opposite.