Two Rye Stout
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

Opaque ebony with little, if any, lightening at the edges. The cap was caramel nougat in color and was a tidy one finger in size when the pint reached my coaster. Thin, wavery rings of lace marched down the glass and gave the beer a nice look overall.

The nose could have been a mite stronger, but was pleasant all the same. I could appreciate well-roasted barley with assistance from chocolate and ground coffee beans; the usual stout suspects. I can't say that I appreciated any rye malt however. No surprise, that.

Rye Stout was good beer and had an impressive amount of bold flavor. It struck me as a combination of a dry stout and a sweet stout, being much closer to the former. There was a surprising (and welcome) amount of bitterness that may have either come from lightly charred black malt or hops, perhaps both.

Black coffee outdueled bittersweet chocolate on the palate, with the flavor profile coming together beautifully on the finish. I may have picked up some degree of spiciness from the rye, but I question whether or not I would have been able to identify this beer as a rye stout without the knowledge of particular grain's presence.

I remained interested throughout all 16 ounces, something that isn't always guaranteed. The body/mouthfeel was in the vicinity of medium for the American stout style with a lively amount of carbonation that was enjoyable because it was so fine-bubbled.

It has been my experience that rye malt isn't nearly as noticeable in stouts as it in the pale styles, probably due to the aggressive flavors provided by roasted barley. Rye Stout suffers that same fate, although I refuse to see it as a negative. I'm convinced that the rye provided some meaure of underlying complexity and spiciness and made an already enjoyable stout even more so.