Four Horsemen #2: War
The Defiant Brewing Company

Good sample from bottle enjoyed at mondial 2008. Very coffee and great stuff. Very tasty dark fruit with roastiness and woodiness, creamy mouthfeel.Some chocolate malts, well balanced. Smooth drinking. One of the best stouts and up there with some imperials.

Pours pitch black with a minimal tan head. Malty nose. Flavor is thicj. Great molasses tones and a noticeable coffee. Robust, great flavor profile, and firm. Hooooieee! I get a coffee aftertaste that hits late and stays for some time. Lovely. Nice carbonation with a good liquid feel. Very drinkable. Full robust qualities. An excellent stout.

I'm reviewing this beer from a soda-keg filled at the brewery and dispensed at home with CO2.

This is a very unique beer in that it is not for everyone's taste due to the subtle amount of peat smoked malt, yet is, at its heart, a true session beer (if you like that sort of thing). Having had a number of sessions with it I can attest to the fact that it just gets better with each succeeding pint. The real key seems to be the overall dryness on the palate, and the building smokiness that makes you want another to let it gather steam without getting cloying in the least.

The nose and palate are a restrained combination of coffee, cocoa, fruit and smoke, and the overall impression is that of elegance. God, I love this beer, mainly because I would be hard pressed to come up with any sort of substitute now that it's found my sweet spot. Neill- keep on making War, not peace!

Poured out a dark brown, near black color, with a bubbly light brown head. The nose was dark and malty, smokey, with hints of cherry and wood. The taste had some good coffee and chocolate, smoke, wood, and malt. The mouthgfeel was a bit underwhelming. For such a heavy mouthfeel, it was surprisingly lightbodied. This one had some nice flavor, but fell a bit short of what I look for in a stout.

12/22/2006 $5.00 1 liter 6.50% No best by date, poured fresh.

Appearance:

Pours a thin pitch black with half an inch of creamy tan head that settles rapidly, leaving a wispy pattern atop the glass.

Aroma:

Roasted malt, smoked ham with a touch of coffee and cigarettes.

Taste/Mouthfeel:

Silky smooth with notes of chocolate and intense dark roasted malt that imbue a nice smokiness that is reminiscent of a subtle rauchbier. Great mouthfeel once again from Defiant, and insanely drinkable. The 6.5% ABV is undetectable, which is frightening considering how quickly I'm downing this liter.